Full text of "Amiga World Magazine (March 1987)"

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Publisher

Stephen Twombly

Editor-in-Chief

Guy Wright
Managing Edtor
Shawn Latiamme
Senior Editor
Vinoy Laughner
Technical Editor
Robert M. Ryan
Review Editor
Linda J. Barrett
Contributing Editors
Peggy Herrington.
David I McClellan,
Lou Wallace

Art Director

Rosslyn A. Frick

Designers

Anne Dillon

Roger Goods

Production/Advertising Supervisor

Howard G. Happ

Advertising Sales Manager

Stephen Robbins

Sales Representative

Kenneth Blakeman

Advertising Coordinator

Heather Paquette

1-800-441-4403

West Coast Sales

Giorgio Saluti, manager

1-415-328-3470

3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 201

Palo Alto, CA 94303

Executive Secretary

Cynde Garrett

Secretary

Laura Livingston

Marketing Manager

Wendie Haines

Business Manager

Barbara Harris

President/CEO

James S Povec

Vice-President/Finance

Roger Murphy

Director of Operations

Matt Smith

Executive Creative Director

Christine Destrempes

New Projects Director

Jeff DeTray

Fulfillment & Special Projects Manager

Craig Pierce

Director of Corporate Production

Dennis Christensen

Typesetting Manager

Linda P. Canale

Typographer

Doreen Means

Manufacturing Manager

Susan Gross
Director of Circulation

Frank S. Smith

Direct Marketing Manager

Bonnie Welsh

Single Copy Sales Manager

Linda Ruth

Direct Sales

Liz Kehn

800-343-0728

Circulation Business Manager

Brenner Fuller

Director of Credit Sales & Collections

William M. Boyer

FEATURES

The Amiga 2000
By Bob Ryan

Take an Amiga 1000. Add about 750K, for a
total of one megabyte of internal RAM.
Add a bunch of internal slots for memory
expansion, Amiga and IBM PC cards,
maybe another CPU. Put room in for two
more disk drives, hard or floppy. Put con-
tents into a metal box and fasten securly.
Add an enlarged keyboard. Fasten Seat Belt.

Between Two Worlds:
The A2088 Board

By Bob Ryan

PC in a Window, or How Commodore
bridged the gap between AmigaDOS and
MS DOS by making an IBM PCona-board

that you can plug into the new Amiga 2000.

2 March/April 1987

MARCH/APRIL 1987

VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2

Easy Palettes

By Christoph C. Bord-Donohue

An Amiga Basic program that will let you
create, customize and store color palettes
for use in your Basic programs.

COLUMNS

DEPARTMENTS
El Repartee

Culled from the avalanche of fan mail.

Hors d'oeuvres

Treasures from the microwaves

of your insight.

A Zeitgeist

What difference could the Amiga 2000
make. ..for you and AmigaWorld?

bU info.phile

By William B. Catchings and
MarkL. Van Name

More That's New in 1.2! A look at version
1.2 Workbench improvements, including
Preferences additions, icon and gadget han-
dling and the new and improved Notepad.

±*£ Digital Canvas

Artistic stretches of the imagination.

ARTICLES

'cU Graphic Hardcopy and the Amiga

By Morton A. Kevelson

More on capturing the Amiga's flashy-
graphics on paper. Good advice and infor-
mation about products, procedures and
techniques for making high-quality
printouts.

Absoft's AC/FORTRAN

By William B. Catchings and
MarkL. Van Name

A review of Absoft's FORTRAN' compiler
for the Amiga; a serious implementation of
FORTRAN 77.

f&l Fundamentals of C:
Playing with Intuition

By William B. Catchings and
Mark L. Van Name

Now that you've learned some C, here's a

tutorial on programming Intuition with this

powerful language. VY1

£11 What's New?

New products and more new products.

QE Help Key

It never hurts to ask.

AmigaWorU (ISSN 1)883-2390) is an independent journal not connected with Commodore Business Machines, Inc. AmigaWorld is published bimonthly In CW Communications/Peterborough. Inc., 80 Elm
St., Peterborough, NH 03458. US. subscription rate is $19.97. one year. Canada and Mexico S22.97. tine year. US. funds drawn on U.S. bank only. Foreign Surface S39.97. Foreign Air Mail $74.97, VS.
funds drawn on U.S. bank. Second class postage pending at Peterborough. NH. and at additional mailing offices. Phone: 603.924-9471. Entire contents copyright 1987 by CW Communicationslt'eltrborough,
Inc. N'o pan of ihis publication may lie primed or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to rt m$ ga W fer i & Subscription Services, PO Box 954,
Farmingdale. NY i 1 73:>. Nationally distributed by Internationa] Circulation Distributors. AmigaHbrld makes every eli'ort to assure the accuracy of articles, listings and circuits published in the maga/ine. AmigaWttrlil
assumes no tcspnmibilily for damages due to errors Or omissions.

lit!] Reviews

Defender of the Crown

MAS-Drive20 Hard Disk

I.ogistix

Money Mentor; PAR Home I;

PHASAR; and 2 + 2
Gridiron!
Goldspell

Computer Baseball
Marble Mildness
Revi.eu> update: Scribble! 2.0

AmigaWorld 3

This column is probably not
the first thing that you read in
every issue. (It's the first thing
that I read, but then again, I
write it.) I imagine that most of
you have already turned to the
article on the new Amiga.
AmigaWorld may not be as fast
as television (or even the pony
express) when it comes to get-
ting out news flashes, but when
you read about it in AmigaWorld,
the information carries more
weight and reality.

Finally! Another Amiga!
GREAT! Since before the begin-
ning, we have heard that there
was going to be an entire line
of Amigas. Rangers, B-52s and
anything else people can dream
of are still being talked about
all the time, I had my own vi-
sions of the next Amiga, and I
have to admit that I was only
about 40 percent right. Now
that I have seen the 2000, 1 am
more impressed with Commo-
dore's ability to engineer new
computers than I am with the
power of my own imagination.
The 2000 is more than just a
souped-up 1000, and yet it is
not a drastic jump into a differ-
ent operating system or disk file
structure. It is still compatible
with 1000 software, and it is
possible for developers to adjust
hardware configurations to al-
low peripheral compatibility as
well. There are so many ele-
ments to the 2000 that we are
going to be spending a lot of
time in the future talking about
its special features. If you don't
see it in this issue, don't worry,
we have a lot of time to peel
back the 2000 petal by petal.
This is just the start.

The article and photographs
were all done in New York City
with heavily armed Commodore

Zeitgeist

What Does the New Amiga Mean?

By Guy Wright

guards breathing over our
shoulders, making sure that we
weren't slipping chips into our
pockets. You wouldn't believe
the rigmarole we had to go
through to get a preview of the
machine. Commodore has got-
ten very nervous about officially
announcing things before they
can ship them. (Note: the opera-
tive word here is "officially." We
have all heard about products
like the Sidecar, Genlock, etc.
that took months to ship, but if
you check the records, I think
you will find that Commodore
had "private showings" of these
peripherals without "officially
announcing" anything.) As far
as I know, by the time you read
this, the new Amiga will have
been "officially announced" and
on its way to market.

So what makes the 2000 so
special? Sure it's nice to have
the extra memory, the slots, the
flexibility, etc., but what is so
different about that? The thing
that makes the 2000 truly
unique is the fact that it is a
"multi" machine. Multi-proces-
sor, multi-DOS and multitask-
ing. The 2000 provides a bridge
between systems, processors and
operating environments. Most
people don't care whether they
are running their software or
hardware under MS-DOS,
AmigaDOS, Unix or gribbleflix,
just as long as it works. The
2000 will provide a system, an
"uber-system" if you will, that
will make the software, hard-
ware, etc. nearly invisible to the
end user. No matter what kind
of end use or application you
need or want, the 2000 should
let you buy the peripherals, pro-
cessors, softw'are, drives or what-
ever else is needed. With the
2000's multitasking abilities, giv-

ing you parallel coprocessing
and parallel DOS, you have a
machine that is'almost unlim-
ited in its configurations and
potential. It will be a while be-
fore all the possibilities are
grasped and implemented.
Since the 2000 can act like al-
most any machine on the mar-
ket, it is unlike any other
machine on the market.

The article pretty much de-
scribes the machine, its inner
workings, etc., but what we
didn't talk about was the impact
it's going to have. What does
the new machine mean to the
future of Commodore? What
will it mean to software and
hardware developers? What will
it mean to everyone who al-
ready owns an Amiga 1000 and
doesn't have enough money to
go out and buy a whole new sys-
tem? What will it mean to
AmigaWorld?

As for the future of Commo-
dore, I think the 2000 is a signal
thai Commodore is eager to
make as great an impact in the

U.S. business market as it has in
Europe, but they know that they
will have to offer more than just
PC compatibility. Other com-
puters offer that at a much
lower price. Commodore
wanted the 1000 to be a busi-
ness machine, but the business
world has been trained to look
for certain things in a personal
computer (whether they are
right or not), and the Amiga
didn't quite fit the description.
The 2000 deals with most of the
objections that the business
world had about the 1000 as a
business machine, since il un-
leashes the Amiga's full poten-
tial. The fact that Commodore
is bringing out a new Amiga
rather than a new C-64 or 128
proves that they are committed
to the Amiga, not just as a sin-
gle machine, but as an entire
line. That is good for all Amiga
owners. The 2000 should have
good sales in the next few years,
and the Amiga line will con-
tinue lo grow. Yes, the 2000 will
attract the business market, but I

4 March/April 1981

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I think it will appeal to the ver-
tical markets first, such as desk-
top publishing and video,
interactive training and busi-
ness presentations. The expand-
ability and flexibility (with
custom and specialized boards)
is going to sell the 2000 to peo-
ple and businesses that need
highly specialized features and
don't care whose name is on
the case.

What will the 2000 mean to
developers? The software devel-
opers will either continue to de-
velop for the 1000 and won't
bother to make changes for the
2000, develop for both ma-
chines, or switch over to devel-
oping only for the 2000. Some
developers will produce exclu-
sively 2000 software as a way to
break into a tight field (imagine
a company with a new paint
program trying to compete with
Aegis and Electronic Arts), but
most developers will continue
to work on products that will
run on both machines. Software
products will add a depth of
new features that fully utilize
the 2000; the same software will
run on a 1000, but these new
features will require internal
and external add-ons. There will
be opportunities for new Amiga
developers wanting to break
into existing markets and new-
markets (e.g., software that
makes use of both MS-DOS and
AmigaDOS or unique ways to
merge programs).

Hardware developers are the
ones who will be most effected
by the new 2000. All the add-
ons developed for the 1000 will
have to be redesigned, but,
since everything for the 2000 is
internal, the manufacturing
costs will go down (manufactur-
ers won't have to put their
boards inside cases). The 2000
will give hardware people new
opportunities to develop things
like controller boards for PC
hardware, but it will open up
the competition for things like
hard disks. Whatever happens,
it should be interesting.

For all of you Amiga 1000
owners who don't have the ex-
tra $S$ to rush out and buy the

new 2000, you will also be able
to benefit from all of the new
features of the 2000. With mem-
ory expansion cards available
and external hardware options,
a 1000 can do anything that a
2000 can do. Software will run
on both machines, so devel-
opers won't be limiting their au-
dience by working on 2000
software exclusively.

My best guess is that if you
want the high-end specialty add-
ons that are going to be devel-
oped for the 2000, then you will
probably end up buying either
a 2000 or the memory and slot
peripherals for the 1000. How-
ever, offsetting that trend, there
will probably be more inexpen-
sive add-ons developed for the
1000 market. If you need a
50mb hard disk or super-clean
composite video output and
don't care about cost, then the
2000 will probably be your ma-
chine, but if you only need a 5-,
10- or 20mb hard disk at prices
that arc bound to come down,
then stick with your 1000. If all
you crave is PC compatibility,
then the Sidecar should suffice.

Lastly, what will the Amiga
2000 mean to AmigaWorldi It
will mean that we will have a lot
more to cover, more advertisers,
more machines out there, more
readers and (I hope) more rea-
sons to go monthly. It also
means more work, more head-
aches, more confusion and
more excitement, but I prefer it
that way. I suppose that we will
have to start giving more cover-
age to MS DOS when hybrid
software begins to overlap the
two operating systems, but we
aren't going to turn into an-
other PC-focused magazine. Nor
are wc going to become a busi-
ness magazine. There are many,
many areas of common interest
to all Amiga owners, whether
they own 1000s, 2000s or what-
ever else comes along. Addition-
ally, AmigaWorlti will integrate
coverage of the new vertical
markets. We will adapt to the
situation, getting bigger or
more frequent or both. What-
ever we do, you can bet we will
remain the bcst.B

6 March/April li

Circle 127 on Reader Service catd.

The Mirror Copier Can Now Back Up
A Disk Almost As Fast As Marauder II,

And It Only Costs About 25% More!

Marauder II Is the most
powerful copier ever produced
for Amiga. It will auto-
matically copy ALL software
released to date , and it
requires no hardware
modification of any kind.
It produces completely
unprotected copies of most
Amiga software faster and
better than any other copier.

No other copier can copy
as much software as
Marauder n.

Marauder II also has the most
advanced user interface your
money can buy. If you have
an Amiga you already know
how to use Marauder II. You
never have to reboot your
machine to use Marauder n, it
Is completely compatible with

^O 1

the Amiga's multitasking
operating system.

Marauder II has been designed
with your future needs in
mind. As protection schemes
change you can update the
program yourself with our
unique "Strategy Files."
The Strategy Files are
developed as new software is
released so that you can get
them quickly and easily when
you need them.

Compare the features of
Marauder n to our
competition and you'll see
that Marauder II is quite
simply the best copier you can
get, at any price! And for only
S39.9S you can rest assured
that your software investment
is safely protected against
damage, loss or theft.
Don't wait, order now!

<&^*^

Marauder II

Minor

Duplication Speed

83 Sec.

1 Minute I
48 Sec. [

Upgradable With
Strategy Files

YES

Mouse Driven User
Interface

YES

Exit Without

Restarting Amiga YES NO

Runs From

Workbench or CLI YES NO

Makes Multiple

Simultaneous Copies

From One Original YES NO

Copies Itself YES NO

Copies The Mirror YES NO

Price S39.95 $49.95

NOW YOU CAW SAVE ANY SCREEN, FROM ANY PROGRAM, ANYTIME WITH GRABBIT.

With GRABBIT you can capture
exactly what you see on your screen
in an Instant, regardless of what
programs you're running. GRABBIT
works with all video modes,
including "Hold and Modify."
What's more, GRABBIT runs
completely in the background,
transparent to your other software.
GRABBIT is always ready for you to
use, even when you're in the middle
of another program. As if that is not
enough, GRABBIT requires only
about 10K RAM to operate, and it
supports dozens of printers.
GRABBIT is truly a productivity
power tool for your AMIGA!

GRABBIT is far superior to other
screen- printing "programs" because
of its small size and quick
performance. No complicated setup is
required, Just install and go! Also,
GRABBIT doesn't require the screen
to remain visible during printing or
saving, and stopping the print
operation is as easy as starting it.

GRABBIT supports all standard
Amiga printer drivers. GRABBIT also
supports full color printing.

In addition to GRABBIT's printing
capabilities, the package also
includes a powerful utility program
"ANYTIME." The ANYTIME bonus

program is a "Preferences" style
palette requester that allows you to
change any colors of any screen,
anytime! With ANYTIME, you are
NOW capable of customizing all
colors to match your printer's
hardcopy to the screen's colors.

Once you start using GRABBIT and
the bonus program ANYTIME you
will want it on every disk. You get
all the power of this sizzling new
software for an unbelievably low
S29.9S + $5 shipping and handling.

With Key Genie — One Key Launches 1000 Strokes!

This amazing keyboard macro
processor is just what you need
to give your fingers a rest. The
Genie is always at work to save
you time and keystrokes.
Complicated or repitious
keyboard sequences are easily
assigned to a key you choose
through the Genie's Pop-Up
Macro Definition Window, You
can also load and save your

favorite macro sequences on disk.
Once saved, the macros can be
automatically installed at startup
to save time. In addition to the
Genie's powers. Discovery
Software has added a bonus
program "Turbo-Shell". The Shell
is an AmigaDOS performance
enhancer that you shouldn't be
without! The Shell gives you the
capability to recall previous CLI

commands with the arrow keys
so that mistyped commands can
be quickly corrected, and
frequently used commands can
be easily repeated. Fast
AmigaDOS command replacements
give you UNIX-style performance
from your Amiga.
What other software does so much
for you at such a low price. Only
$49.95 -i- S5 shipping and handling.

When ordering from overseas,

add an additional $5.00 shipping for

first class airmail.

11-1-86

iDISCOVERY 903 E. Willow Grove Ave., Wyndmoor, PA 191 18 (215) 242-4666
SOFTWARE 3 n , ' fc

I IN. II HN ATIOW AL Circle &9 on Reader Service ca;d.

AmlgaTM is a registered trademark of Commodore- Amiga Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories

Repartee

From the
Livingroom. . .

Our family just loves the Amiga.
We recently completed a project us-
ing the Amiga, two VCRs, a slide
projector, TV camera, audio cassette
player, color monitor, microphone.
Aegis Images and Digi-Vieiu soft-
ware. The result was a unique
travel log. We digitized several slides
and added humorous commentaries
with the text capability of Images.
Dynamic, colorful script was used to
introduce each country. An overall
background soundtrack was dubbed
over the video. Once this was com-
pleted, verbal commentary explained
the details of the trip. The hookup
was rather complicated, so my Dad
handled that problem.

We really enjoyed the creative ca-
pability of the Amiga. This project
even sparked my Mom's interest in
the computer.

Noelle C. Adams (age 14)
Chesterland, OH

. . .to the Laboratory

As a professor of architecture
writing a technical book, my Amiga
has been my constant companion for
mam months. It has done everything
1 haw asked of it — word processing,
spreadsheets, data management, ma-
trix algebra and other calculations,
and all the drawings that will ap-
pear in my book, as well as the color
lecture slides that ivill accompany it.
The Amiga, the furthest thing 1 can
think of from a door stop, is a real
tiger. All the other computers in our
university computer labs (all of the
best ones are there) seem like old
gray mares after using the Amiga. I
see that some Amiga owners with lit-
tle appreciation of the graphic and
plastic arts have been put off, per-
haps intimidated, by your coverage
of the Amiga's prowess in the visual
arts that are so much a part of my

personal and professional life. But
take heart, there is a tremendous
ground-swell of those such as I who
are exploring and exploiting the
Amiga for the many things it can do
for us.

Eugene E. Crommett, Ph.D.

University of Puerto Rico

Sanjuan, PR

Whither Tecmar?

/ see one notable omission in your
Hardware Buyer's Guide [fanJFeb.
"87] — a full line of expansion units
from Tecmar. What happened at Tec-
mar? As I believe, they were among
the first to offer hardware (or the
Amiga. Their line included the T-
card expansion unit, T-disk hard
disk and the T-modem, which offered
features not available elsewhere,
such as tone-decode and audio-circuit
access.

Has Tecmar discontinued their
line of Amiga products?

Mark Barnes
Los Angeles, CA

Tecmar is no longer manufac-
turing products for the Amiga
market. Also out of the picture
is The Micro Forge and their
line of Amiga hardware.

— Editors

Wanted: Professional
Software

I feel vert fortunate that I do not
need to use my Amiga for any seri-
ous business applications. Since I
have purchased my machine, only a
few quality business packages have
been introduced. I have yet to find a
word processor that supports mail
merge and macro functions. Finding
hardware at a reasonable price
seems to be a problem, too. Did Com-
modore lack the confidence or the
ability to develop a line of periph-
eral hardware such as a hard drive,

a color printer or an expansion
chassis?

Developers must start to exploit
this machine's power for C4A busi-
ness and desktop publishing. Real-
time I/O control and monitoring are
also possible applications for the
Amiga.

Richard A. Ireland
Charleston, WV

Up until now, there wasn't a sys-
tem under $2,000 that could meet
the needs of small businesses without
requiring the user to also be a pro-
grammer. The Amiga, with the right
softxvare, could solve a lot of the
problems encountered by small
businesses.

Question: Isn't the Amiga multi-
tasking? Why doesn't the software
act like it?

IBM PCs, Apples and the rest, in-
cluding the Amiga, make you do the
same re-entry into a dozen separate,
non-integrated software packages,
It 's easier and cheaper to use a
Dome Ledger ($3.95) than an IBM
PC ($3,950). Unless Amiga software
can be created to solve problems for
attorneys, students, printers, artists,
store owners, salesmen and writers,
then the Amiga is doomed to
anonymity.

R. Skip Uldriks
Holmes Beach, FL

As editors o/ AmigaWorld, you
are probably in touch with software
developers alt the time. Let them
know that we Amiga owners need
high-quality output for our graphics
(business graphics and slides), such
as output to a 2,000- to 4,000-line
film recorder. Also, we need a qual-
ity desktop-publishing package with
output to a black-and-white laser
printer, such as an Imogen 8203
XP or another high-quality laser

printer capable of printing a full
page at 300 DPI or better. Without
this kind of output, the Amiga can-
not compete with the Macintosh or
IBM PC AT, both of which already
have this professional software.

Ron Dube
Ossining, NY

Scribble! Rebuttal

/ have just read the rexnew of
Scribble! [fanJFeb. '87, p. 78] and
have to give my views about it. Al-
though the review was not of version
2.0, which I am using, I believe my
comments arc still applicable.

Mr. Watt and I disagree on one
major aspect of the program. He
complains that the program forces
you to use embedded commands to
change the text format in the middle
of a document. If I am that picky
about the layout of text at the time
of entering it, I might just as well
use ED or Notepad. With all this
computing power available, why
should I have to do all the work of
formatting text? I would even like to
see a few more dot commands. The
feature I miss most from my old
word processor (Scripsit, on a TRS-
80 M4) is vertical centering, which
made letter formatting easy. Scripsit
also had an automatic paragraph
indent and blank line ability.

When I'm writing something, I
just want to write. The layout can
come later, when the text is finished,
Dennis Lee Bteber
Sunnyvale, G4

Sec Douglas Watt's review of
Scribble! 2.0 in this issue, p. 94,
— Editors

Send your letters to: Repar-
tee, AmigaWorld editorial, 80
Elm St., Peterborough, NH
05458, letters may be edited for
space and clarity.!

8 March/April 1987

the new
MaxiPlan

(its

■

CMMtfl

u nW i

H^jwljint
Hist

It t*I>tftS*

«<s!iti*
ttnillts

Rittut

L*»»UAt

.i rCTTfr'*MiJb .-£'ig£ CT>l =

J a" Tii lit bv Ouster

preadsheet old fashioned!

rhe original MaxiPlan"" was named
he Best Amiga™ Spreadsheet of
986 by F.A.U.G., the world's
argest and most active Amiga
iser group. Now in 1987, Oxxi is
>roud to introduce MaxiPlan
>Ius™—the most advanced Amiga
preadsheet ever. With even more
ime-saving innovations than the
iward-winning MaxiPlan, the new
MaxiPlan Plus includes Microsoft
ixcal '"-like Macros and Utilities.

Vith MaxiPlan Plus and your
imiga you can:

Open multiple spreadsheets
nd graphs

"Link" data from any number of
preadsheets

Create a self-running demo or
nteractive multiple choice quiz,
ncorporating files from word
irocessors and paint programs

Automatically create reports
uch as invoices and purchase
rders

Instruct a data entry person with With the MaxiPlan Plus Data

speech or written prompts

• "Recite" your data entries when
checking data accuracy against
source documents

• Export graphs via an IFF file to
any Amiga paint program

The MaxiPlan Plus Spreadsheet
features:

• 512 columns by 65,530 rows

• Function key commands

• Ranges or cells referenced by
"Name" or cell numbers

• Written or spoken notes that
attach to cells or ranges

• Password protected cells

• Easy-to-use pre, bar, line and
area graphs

• Up to 8 graphs per spreadsheet

• Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility

• 63 built-in functions such as:

— Financial I1RR. PV, NPV, FV, PMTl

— Data base (Index. Find. Lookup!

— Presentation IColor. Style, Speech)

Base you can:

• Sort on any number of fields in
any order

• Maintain up to 16 data bases
per spreadsheet

• Create merge files for labels or
form letters

• "Find" or "Lookup" any specific
record or records

With the MaxiPlan Plus Macros
you can:

• Define up to 32 macros for any
spreadsheet

• Activate macros with a single
key stroke

• Automatically generate macros
under record mode

• Use over 70 different macro
commands

• Create templates for data entry

• Incorporate speech to instruct,
remind or inform user

MaxiPlan Plus™

SI 99.""

at your local Amiga software

dealer.

OXXilmc

1835-A/Dawns Way
Fullerton, CA 92631
(7141999-6710

;

MaxiPlan

Named the best Amiga spreadsheet
of 1986 for its outstanding mouse
interfaces, unique pull-down menus
and advanced speech capabilities.

Excel is;i rr,}dem,iik ol Mi< ruM.1l Corp

Circle 75 on Reader Servce card.

Hors d'oeuvres

There are two kinds of people
in the world: those who own
Amiga World T-shirts and
those who don't. To join the
prestigious, growing ranks of the former, you need good taste, a
little imagination and an idea worth sharing. If this sounds like
you, send your recipe to Amiga World Hors d'oeuvres, 80 Elm
St., Peterborough, NH 03458. If it's good enough to be included
in our next platter of palate pleasers, you'll soon be wearing your
reward (just remember to send us your T-shirt size).

We hope you enjoy these latest offerings. Be sure to use backups
of your original disks for experimenting, and if you find anything
here that seems half-baked, let us know.

Clearing Keyboard Buffer
In BASIC

The ability to type ahead on the Amiga is
usually a good thing to have, but it can sure
mess up the INKEYS statement in a BASIC
program. The following subroutine will
make sure no old, garbage keypresses are
mistaken for a response.

SUB CLEARKEYS STATIC

FORX=l TO 10

r$ = INKEYS

NEXT X

ENDSUB

To use, call it immediately before the IN-
KEYS statement. Example:

CALL CLEARKEYS
WHILE INKEYS = "": WEND

Margaret Hettinger
Lebanon Junction, KY

Faster Downloads

For those of you who have ever tried to
download a large file from a BBS or one of
the major networks, you may have noticed
that the transfer really slows down waiting

for the disk drive to finish writing after
each block. This is especially noticeable
when using Xmodem, since it uses 128-byte
blocks. The solution is to send the file to
RAM:. From the CLI you can open another
CLI with NEWGLI. Then load your termi-
nal program from the first CLI. After you
finish the download, simply move the front
window up out of the way and click in the
second CLI window. Then type:

COPY RAM: file name TO drive number
DELETE RAM: ftk name

With a 512K machine using Micro-Sys-
tems Software's Online!, you can get about
199K in the RAM disk before total machine
lockup (I found that out the hard way!). The
longer the file, the greater the time savings
realized. This technique is especially useful
when calling long distance to get that pub-
lic-domain program that you just can't live
without.

Ken Baynard
K.l. Sawyer AKB, MI

C Compiler Printouts

1 was having difficulty compiling a pro-
gram in C when I thought how nice it

would be to have a hard copy of the com-
piler errors to discuss with other program-
mers. The command format for Manx's
Aztec C compiler is:

cc < -option > filename

Thinking this chore would be easy, I tried
to redirect the console output to the printer
by typing:

cc filename > prt:

However, the compiler treated > prt: as
a parameter, since options can appear ei-
ther before or after the name of the C
source file that resulted in an error. Due to
a quirk of the system, prt: should precede
compiler invocation so that:

cc > prt: <-

>ption> filename

will properly compile filename and redirect
output to the printer and return output to
the console after compilation is executed,

Sam Spear

Fort Worth, TX

Break Key

Every time I try to download something
from a BBS using Micro-Systems' BBS-PC, I
get a message saving "use break to cancel."
Try as I might. I could never find a break
key on the keyboard. Well, I'll be damned!
Break on the Amiga keyboard is a combina-
tion of the ALT and C keys. Many main-
frames and network svstems use break to
slop transmissions or to kill a running pro-
gram, so it is a good thing to be aware of,

Mike Smithwich
Los Altos Hills, CA

Saving Custom Icons

When I discovered how to use the Icon
Editor on the Workbench disk, 1 made use-
ful icons for mv Amiga Basic programs.

10 March/April 1981

BSSaiiSsy

WARNING: Independent test results have
determined that this game is habit forming.

#{v»t»a-

Fourth and goal on the two. Ten seconds left and you're down by five. The roar of the crowd is
deafening as you scan the defense. Something's not right. You call an audible... that special play you've
been saving for a moment like this. You fake a hand off to the fullback up the middle and drop back to pass,
but nobody's open. You roll left, pursued by a 270 pound defensive lineman. Finally, the fullback breaks
clear in the end zone. You squeeze a bullet between two defenders as your fullback cuts back to make the
catch. The scoreboard lights up as the crowd goes wild... TOUCHDOWN!!

This is GRIDIRON!™, the most realistic football simulation ever developed for a micro-
computer. GRIDIRON! is TACKLE football played in real-time. Call a play from the Playbook,
or design your own using our Play Creation Utility. You control the action with five levels of play,
real time graphics, digitized stereo sound and an unprecedented level of game interaction.

Experience the game that's winning rave reviews from players and critics alike.
GRIDIRON!, the ultimate football simulator designed to unleash the power of your Amiga.
Nothing else comes close. How to on , en Visit your

r, . irioTj- t. i ■> i-'*_ -. »_• r .. _ . . „„, retailer, or call for direct VISA or

Requires 512K For one or two players. Soon to be available for the fltan SX Mastercard orders i-boo-99 2-4009

Amiga is a trademark of Commodore -Ami ga, Inc. e> 1986 Bethesda Softworks Circle 57 on Reader Service card 9208 Burning Tiee Road, Bethc sda, Maryland 20817 (301) 469-7061

mum

wmms

Amiga is a trademark of Commodore -Ami ga, Inc. V 1986 Bethesda Softworks

Circle 57 on Reader Service card.

BSI

,y-~- -.-_-■/•

■U

No Sweat...

With

Money Mentor !

"Keep track of your pennies, and your
dollars will lake care of themselves." Old.
but sensible advice, even in today's
complex financial environment. Money
Mentor" is a breakthrough in personal
financial management. It harnesses the
awesome power of the Amiga" to compute
and graph clear reports of your financial
situation.

A unique system called "Smart Scrolls"
handles a diversity of tedious data entry
functions and can save "0% of the typing
typically required for entry.

Money Mentor" features:

• 200 budget categories.

• 30 integrated accounts; checking, cash,
saving and credit cards

• Elaborate search routine allows
editing of transactions according to
your specific guidelines.

• Automatic check printing,

• Automatic Account Balancing.

• Colorful graphic reports illustrating
actual versus budgeted amounts.

• Over 50 reports from which to choose.
This year... get organized with

Money Mentor"

SEDONA SOFTWARE

11 844 Rancho Benardo Rd.. Ste. #20

San Diego, a 92128

To order,
call (619)451-0151

However, when I made an adjustment in
the program and re-saved it, my custom
icon was replaced with the standard flow-
chart icon Lhat is created for every Amiga
Basic program when it is initially saved.

There are two solutions to this problem.
One is to keep an icon library and use the
Icon Editor to replace the standard icon
with your custom icon,

The other solution is implemented with-
out leaving Amiga Basic, and leaves you
with an old (unmodified) copy of the
program.

First, get into the intermediate mode and
type SAVE OLD. Now you have a new copy
of the progTam with a standard icon and an
old copy of the program with your custom
icon. All you have to do now is switch the
programs.

In the intermediate mode, type:

NAME OLD AS TEMPORARY
NAME your program's name AS OLD
NAME TEMPORARY AS your program's

Now you have the new program with the
custom icon and the old program with the
standard icon, so you can move the old
copy somew : here else or into the trash until
you know your modifications work
corrcctlv.

Derek Buckley
Spokane, WA

Quick CU

I have an answer to the quick CLI prob-
lem. It's so simple it's almost not worth
mentioning.

I moved my CLI from the System Drawer
to the Workbench window itself; now when
I open my Workbench, there's the CLE This
also saves the trouble of typing LOADWB
or trying to press CTRL-D at just the right
time.

Larry H. Larson
Austin, TX

Icon System Solution

Here is a solution to Mr. Raidma's prob-
lem [Help Key, Nov./Dec. '86, p. 127] which
will allow him to keep Amiga Basic in his
drawer labeled "BasicWork."

With Workbench loaded, first click once
on the icon for the Basic program. Next, se-
lect Info from the Workbench menu by
highlighting it and releasing the mouse but-
ton. When the Info window comes onto the
screen, change the default tool from :AMI-

GABASIC: to :BASICWORK/AMIGABASlC.
This will direct the icon system to load
Amiga Basic from the BasicWork drawer. I
tried it and it works for me.

Dr. Michael J. Doyle
Bel Air, MD

SAY from BASIC

If you want to use the Say (voice) func-
tion, the best method is to store the spoken
text in a sequential data file created with
the built-in ED function or any word pro-
cessor that allows an ASCII save. After the
file is created, add the following lines to
your Amiga Basic program:

OPEN file name FOR INPUT AS »\

REM/tte name CREATED USING ED
WHILE NOT EOF(l)

LINEINPUT#I,A$
SAY TRANSLATE$(AS)
WEND
CLOSE #1

You can listen to the spoken text before
placing it in your program by opening a
CLI window and typing SAY -Xfile name.

Karl Dittman
Salem, MO

Copy of Another Type

Another way to copy a file is by using the
Type command under the CLI.

The Type command will display the con-
tents of a file in either ASCII or hex, de-
pending upon the option used and, of
course, the flic being accessed.

Normally, the return is to the screen or
prt:. However, I have discovered that it can
also be to a disk or file, and if a file is not
specified, one is created.

The format is as follows:

TYPE D??:file name TO file name

For example, let's say you have a file on a
disk in drive 1 called Amiga World and you
want a copy on the disk in drive to be
called Mags. In the CLI, you would type the
following command string:

TYPE DFLAMIGAWORLD DF0:MAGS

Note that the use of TO is optional.
When you now do a directory search, you
should find a new file called MAGS
on DFL.

David Morgan

Robina, Queensland, Australia ■

Circle 67 on Reader Service card.

12 March/April 19S7

Now Look At Word Processing
In A Whole New Light.

ProWrite. All Others Pale By Comparison.

You chose Amiga* because you wanted some-
thing more. Now you choose your software for
the same reason. Which makes choosing Pro-
Write word processing a very bright idea.

The Full Spectrum of Capabilities.

ProWrite lets you select more than just a
typeface: You get proportionally spaced charac-
ter fonts. Brilliant color. Unsurpassed graphics
capabilities. And no surprises. Because what

you see on the screen with ProWrite is a letter-
perfect picture of what you'll see printed on the
page — from header to footer, right down to
the last pixel.

Creative Control: A Bril-
liant Stroke. With six pull-
down menus, just a click of the
mouse or a few keystrokes is all
you need to create, delete, copy,
alter, move mid otherwise ma-
nipulate text. Multiple selections create a limitless
choice of character fonts, colors, sizes and styles.
Customize everything from a daily diary to an
annual report, including color grapliics. And
with headers and footers always clearly displayed,
ProWrite makes even advanced formatting as
easy as dragging a mouse.

Ease of Use: Another Bright Idea.

ProWrite delivers more of what you bought Amiga
for Professional output Multi-tasking power.

A "creative edge."
You can open up
to eight windows
at once — and
perform a variety
of editing tasks be-
tween them. With
ProWrite, you'll al-
ways know exactly what you're
doing, because you see it
done — in Irving color — right
before your eyes.

See for yourself what you get with ProWrite.
Then, just for fun, take a look at the others —
and watch them pale by comparison.

New Horizons

SOFTWARE

First In Personal Productivity And Creativitv.

New Horizons Software, Inc. PO Box 43167, Austin, TX 78745 15121 329-6215
ProWrite is a trademark of New Horizons Software. Inc. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-AmiRa, Inc.

Circle 38 on Pleader Service card

BRINGING THE WORLD OF AMIGA™ PRODUCTS TO YOU... FAST!

\/a

AMIGA

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{Call For Current Price)

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AMIGA 1080 COLOR MONITOR

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AMIGA MODEM 1200 RS

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AMIGA 5.25" DISK DRIVE WITH TRANSFORMER SOFTWARE — Available Now!
CALL FOR PRICE AND AVAILABILITY OF SIDECAR AND GENLOCK

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with 2 megabytes RAM
installed and tested

\ pjmdcrn

• Autoconfiguring

• Optional Pass Thru Bus

• Expandable to 4 MB

• Recoverable RAM Disk

We have memory expansion boards from Microbotics, C Ltd., ASDG, Byte by Byte, Access Assoc, and more.

Free Software From GA and Electronic Arts

Buy any two Electronic Arts products (except Data Disks)
and get your choice of Adventure Construction Kit,
Archon, Archon II: Adept, Financial Cookbook,
Seven Cities of Gold, and One-on-One FREEH Call for
details. Offer expires March 31. 1987.

SONY
DS/DD Disks

Box of 10 Disks

Modem Special

300/1200 Baud

On-Line Software

Cable

$199

Circle 26 on Reader Service card.

Free Blue Label Shipping

* On all software orders over $100 to destinations east of the Rocky Mountains. This is two-day delivery from shipping date.

SOFTWARE

ABSOFT

AC/Basic $239

AC/Fortran S239

Fortran 77 $239

ACCESS SOFTWARE

Leader Board $ 31

Tournament Disk , $ 17
Tenth Frame . ... $ 31

ACCOLADE
Mean 18 $ 32

ACM
Grade Manager , . . I 69

ACTIVISION
Borrowed Time . . $ 29
Champ. Basketball $ 29

Gamernaker $ 48

Gamestar Titles ... Call

Hacker $ 29

Hacker II $ 29

Little Comp. People Call

Mindshadow $ 29

Music Studio $ 43

Shanghai $ 29

ToneTowr S 29

ADEPT
CompuCuisine . . . . S 29

AEGIS
Animator/Images . . S 89

Art Disk S 42

Draw Call

Draw Plus Call

Images Call

Impact $125

Sonic Call

ALIEN
Hyperbase Call

AMIGA

Lisp $149

Assembler $ 79

MindWalker S 44

1.2 Update S 14

ANAKIN
Easyl Call

BATTERIES INCLUDED
ISGUR Portfolio ... $129
Paperclip Elite ... $ 89

BTS $ 49

DEGAS Elite S 56

BAUDVILLE
Video Vegas $ 28

BEST SOFTWARE
Best Financial .... $309

BETHESDA
Gridiron! $ 69

BROWN WAGH
Zuma Fonts
1,2,or3 $ 26

BYTE BY BYTE
Financial Plus .... $250
InfoMinder $ 69

CAPILANO
Logic Works $159

CENTRAL COAST
DOS 2 DOS $ 45

CHANG LABS
Accts Payable ... $109
Accts Receivable . , $109

AR/AP/GL $219

General Ledger ... $109

Payroll $109

Sales Analysis .... $109
COMPUMED

Hacker Package . . $ 39

Mirror $ 39

COMPUSERVE

Starter Kit $ 29

COMPUTER CLUB

Nancy $ 45

COSMI

Super Huey $ 32

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

MultiForth Call

DARK HORSE

Chess Mate $ 25

DELTA RESEARCH

Forth Call

DELUXE HELP

Deluxe Help

For DPaint $ 20

DIGITAL CREATIONS

D'Buddy $ 58

Digital Link $ 49

Gizmos $ 39

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS

LPD Series Call

DISCOVERY

Grabbit S 25

Exactly! $19

Key Genie $ 39

Marauder II $ 39

ELECTRONIC ARTS
Adv. Constr. Kit ' $ 29

Archon ' $ 29

Archon II ' Call

Arctic Fox $ 29

Auto Duel $ 39

Bard's Tale $ 39

ChessMaster 2000 $ 35

Deluxe Music S 75

Deluxe Paint S 69

Deluxe Print ... . S 69
Deluxe Video . . . $69
DPaint Data Disk , S 25
DPrint Data Disk . . $ 25
Financial Cookbk. ' $ 35

Instant Music $ 35

Instant Music Data $ 25

King's Quest Call

Maxicomm $ 38

Maxidesk $ 52

Maxiplan $109

Marble Madness . . $ 37
New Tech Col. Book $ 17

Ogre $ 38

One on One ' ... $ 29
7 Cities of Geld - . . $ 29

Skyfox $ 29

Starfleet I $ 44

Ultima III $ 49

Winnie the Pooh . . $ 26

■<:'■ ' ■
puichase ol any olhei '
I BX08I

EPYX

Roque $31

Temples of Apsha S 31

FIREBIRD
Pawn 5 32

FIRST BYTE

First Shapes S 34

Kid Talk .. $ 39

Math Talk $ 39

Speller Bee $ 39

FINALLY SOFTWARE

Dr. Xes $ 39

Talker $ 54

GIMPEL
Lint $ 85

GO AMIGO
Printer Drivers Call

GOLD DISK

Page Setter $109

GRAFOX OF ENGLAND

Logistix $174

HARVSOFT

Infobase S 36

INFOCOM

All Titles Available . . Call
tNOVATRONICS

Power Windows ... $ 65

M Call

INTERACTIVE ANALYTIC

Expert System Kit $ 56

Explorer $ 39

JAGWARE

Alien Fires Call

JDK IMAGES

Pro Video CGI . ... Call

JENDAY
Conv. w/ Comp. . . S 24

JHM
Talking Color Book S 24

KENT ENGINEERING
MacroModem . . $ 55

LATTICE
C Compiler . .. . , $129
dbCIII Library .... $119
Dos X Compiler ... $199

Make Utility $ 99

Panel $149

Screen Editor S 89

Text Utilities . . . $62

MARK OF THE UNICORN
Hex $ 31

MARKSMAN
PHASAR $ 69

MANX
Aztec C— Comm. . . $389
Aztec C-Devel. . . $239
Aztec C-Prof Call

MEGASOFT

A-Copier $ 29

A-Disk $ 24

A-Filer $ 34

A-Report $ 34

A-Term $ 34

MERIDIEN SOFTWARE
Zing Call

METACOMCO

Pascal $ 80

Shell Call

Toolkit Call

METADIGM

MetaScope $ 79

MetaScribe $ 73

MetaTools I $ 61

MICRO ILLUSIONS

CAD System Call

Discovery— Math , . $ 31
Discovery— Spell . . $ 31

MICROPROSE
Silent Service $ 31

MICROSMITHS
TxEd $ 32

MICROSYSTEMS SW

Analyze 2 Call

BBS-PC . , $ 65

Online $ 47

Scribble $ 65

Organize S 65

MILES
Quintette's Call

MIMETfCS
SoundScape $130

NEW HORIZONS

Flow S 85

ProWrite Call

NEWTEK

Oigi-Patnt S 49

Dig iView Software $185

NORTHEAST SOFTWARE

Order Call

Publisher Call

MINDSCAPE
Balance of Power . , $ 37

Bratacus $ 35

Deja Vu $ 37

Halley Project $ 37

Keyboard Kadet ... $ 30

Mastertype $ 30

Racter $ 35

SAT Preparation ... $ 61
Dei of the Crown . $ 37

S.D.I $ 37

The King of

Chicago $ 37

Sinbad $ 37

PAR SOFTWARE

Par Home $ 53

Par Real $ 99

PECAN

Pascal Powersys. $ 89
PRECISION SOFTWARE

SuperBase $114

QUEUE

Educational Call

S ANTHONY STUDIO

Laser Up! $ 69

Laser Utilities . , . . S 30

Laser Fonts $ 30

SEDONA

Money Mentor .... $ 78
SOFTW. INSIGHT TECH

GO 64 Call

SOFTWOOD

Mi Amiga File. ... $ 72

Mi Amiga Ledger . . $ 72
SOFTWORKS

Softworks Basic .... Cal
SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE

Galo Call

SUBLOGIC

Flight Simulator ... Call
Jet Call

TAURUS
Acquisition Call

TDI
Modula II— Comm. Call
Modula ll-Devel. $115
Modula II— Reg. . . $ 70

THE OTHER GUYS

AMT . $ 31

Great States $ 31

Keep-Trak $ 99

Omega File $ 61

TIGRESS
Diskwik $ 39

TRANSTIME Datamat
A-100. 200. 300 ... Call

TRUE BASIC. INC.

True Basic $109

9 Libraries (each) $ 39
Runtime , $109

UNISON WORLD

Art Gallery I, II Call

Pnntmaster Plus. $ 49

VERSASOFT
dBMAN $ 99

VIP TECHNOLOGY
Professional Call

WORDPERFECT INC.
WordPerfect Call

BOOKS

ADDISON WESLEY

Intuition Manual ... $ 24

Hardware $ 24

Rom: Libraries .... $ 34

Rom: Exec $ 34

SYBEX
Progr.'s Guide $24

HARDWARE

ACCESS ASSOCIATES

Alegra 512K

. S335

AKRON

A-Time

. $ 59

AMIGA

A1000CPU

. . Call

External 3.5" ....

. . Call

Monitor

. . Call

Transformer

. . Call

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. . Call

Modem

. . Call

ANCHOR AUTOMATION

Omega 80

$165

APPLIED VISIONS

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. . Call

Memory Banks . .

. . Call

BYTE BY BYTE

Pal Jr.

. . Call

Tick

. Call

EPSON
JX-80 Ribbons .... $ 17

GO AMIGA
Printer Cables .... $ 25
Modem Cables , , , S 25
Disk Head Cleaner S 15

30-DiskCase $ 10

Mousepad $ 10

Sony Monitor Cable $ 35

GOLDEN HAWK TECH.
MIDI Gold $ 69

JUKI
5510 Color Printer . S499

MICROBOTICS
Starboard 2MB . . . $599
MAS-Drive 20 Call

MIMETICS
Audio Digitizer .... $ 89
MIDI Interface .... $ 45

OKIDATA
Okimate 20 Ribbons $ 7

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Perfect Sound Call

TECMAR
All Products Call

<*»*<* y 800-BE-AMIGA

In California: 800-843-2842

Customer Service: 415-322-0686

Oelivory subject to product availability.
Prices subject to change.

Send Mail Orders to:

GO AMIGO

508 Waverley Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301

(Money Order, Cashier's Check, or OualilieO P.O. only)

SHIPPING INFO: We ship UPS ground. On orders less than S100. shipping is S3 per item (limit S6).
For software orders over S1Q0, FREE LIPS 2nd Day Air shipping. Call to- hardware shipping costs.
RETURN & REFUND POLICY: All returns must have an RMA-s. Call Customer Service and request
a HMA-». Defective merchandise under warranty will be repaired or replaced. We do not offer refunds
for defective products or for products that do not perform satisfactorily. We make no guarantees for
product performance. Any money back guarantees must be handled directly with the manufacturer

Circle 26 on Reader Servce caret, Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga

"Captain's Log. October 1, 1944. 0250 Hours.
Fleet submarine USS Hammerhead proceeding
Southwest al cruising speed. Our mission:
intercept enemy convoy oil the coast ol Borneo.
Disperse and destroy." _

Captain's Log...
War Date 10.01.44

+ t'JIS *D • W «. • Bt 1--

♦ ■'JIB* ••*•.

"0300 Hours. Two hours until dawn. Radar
picks up convoy, escorted by two destroyers.
We believe Ihal one of the enemy's valuable oil
tankers Is part ol convoy formation," __

"0400 Hours. Lookouts on the bridge.
Target Identification party reports one tanker,
6,000 tons, troopship ol 10,250 tons, with two
Karbofcon-type escorts. Moving Into attack
posilion." _

"0500 Hours. Sound General Quarters!
Battle stations manned. Preparing tor torpedo
run. Gauge Panel OK. PerlscopeOK. Charts
and Attack Plot Board OK, All mechanical
systems OK."

+ .!!ffi • <p » .n

"0525 Hours. Torpedo rooms report lull tubes
forward and aft. Battery at lull charge for
silent running. We hope water temperature
will provide thermal barrier to contuse
enemy sonar."

"0600 Hours. We are at final attack position.
Convoy moving at 10 knots. Target distance
decreasing rapidly .. . Crash Dive! Escorts have
spotted us and are turning to attack! Rig to
run silent." . -

"0700 Hours. Depth charged lor one hour,
Some minor damage, but repair parties at
work. Destroyer propeller noises receding.
We'll come to periscope depth lor our return

2* H

+ .tti2.* *"*>-t<r .. saiu-

"0715 Hours. Torpedo tubes 1 . 2, 3 tired.
Two destroyers hit and sinking. One ol the
enemy's last tankers coming into 'scope
view - an ideal target position. On my mark .
Fire Tube 4! Fire 5!"

HBZ3SHI "Superb" raves
1 Scott May in On
oiicMT I Line, "strategic
ccdimpc | intensity and heart-
pounding action
have rarely been
I merged this suc-
I cessfulry." Analog
I calls it flatly "the
best submarine
simulation so far." Compute com-
ments "Silent Service's detail is
astonishing." Join the more than
150,000 computer skippers who
have volunteered (or Silent Service
the naval action/ tactics simulation
— from MicroProse.

Silent Service Is available tor Commodore 64* 126™,
Amiga"". Apple II family, Atari XiyXE, Atari ST, IBM
PC 'PC Jr. and Tandy 1000, at a suggested retail
price ol 534.95 [Alari ST and Amiga. S39.95).

Commodore. Amiga, Apple, Atari, IBM, and Tandy
are registered trademarks ol Commodore Elec-
tronics. Ltd.. Commodore- Amiga Inc.. Apple
Computer, Inc.. international Business Machines
Corp.. and Tandy Corp., respectively.

Available rrom your local retailer. If out-ol-stock.
contact MicroProse directty lor further Information
onourtull range of simulation software, and to place
Mastercard/Visa orders.

•

•"• •'"''*■•■"

Circle 198 on Reader Service card.

BACK IN FRONT..

The Amiga 2000
features a
megabyte of memory,
internal slots,
up to three
internal disk drives,
and the ability
to run coprocessor
tasks in Amiga
windows.

■■■::,-■ &w

■ ■

I AMIGA

WQMTOffl MODEL TWO

WARNING: SHOCK HAZARD

QQHCTQPV4

UL '<§•

■ *8i|iaaljia

HUH!!! •.

liiiiiisir

!U!!!SIII

I ■ I J J I I I I- I

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^^^^^" L63B3272

[* ISSBEB _•' I-

* <$<? (v imiiiuiiJ :-

ftUU] Q£ | ( : H -

hcht tar seiei-tonr

PHOTOGRAPHED BV AARON REZNV

/I m)^a H'orW /7

AMIGA AGAIN

\itiitiittmuiiiiiiiiBiiii6tiii

«HH"'I !-'

■ ■ ■

By Bob Ryan

THE AMIGA 2000 is a new computer from Commodore
(hat provides more standard memory than the Amiga
1000, interna] slots for easy expandability, and the option
to add IBM PC/XT software compatibility with an expan-
sion hoard — the A2088 Board. In addition to Amiga-
specific expansion slots, the
Amiga 2000 has an IBM PC/AT
bus system buill into (he machine.
So, besides running IBM soft-
ware, the A2000 gives your IBM
applications access to IBM PC
expansion hardware, including
80286 and 80386 boards.

While adding Amiga
expansion slots and
(optionally) IBM compat-
ibility, (he Amiga 2000
(A2000) has remained
totally software compatible
with the Amiga 1000 (A 1 000);
software that runs under Kick-
start 1.2 on the A 1000 will run
on the A2000. Hardware differ-
ences exist between the two
machines, but these concern the
expansion ports and busses. The
2000 uses l he same processor and the
same custom chips as the A 1000. The ►

Photo 1. Amiga 2000
keyboard. Changes from
the A1000 keyboard
Include new placements
for the Help, Delete and
cursor keys, and an
IBM-style numeric
keypad.

Photo 2. Inside the
Amiga 2000. The power
supply (upper-left corner)
and disk drives (upper
center) are suspended
above the motherboard
on an eight-screw
mount. Also shown Is
the A2094 Hard Disk/
SCSI Controller,

Photo 3. A2094 Hard Disk/
SCSI Controller.

AmigaWorld 19

Amiga 2000 doesn't make the A 1000 obsolete — the
graphics modes, for instance, arc identical — but it is a
much more versatile, expandable, compatible, and, ulti-
mately, more powerful machine.

System Description

The Amiga 2000 uses the MC68000 processor. It comes
with one megabyte (million bytes) of RAM, one half-
height, internal 3 ^-inch floppy drive that can store
880K of programs and data, a detachable, 94-key key-
board and a two-button mouse. It also has five Amiga
and four IBM PC/AT slots for internal expansion. The
Amiga 2000 system box is a metal case 6 %-inches high,
17 % 6 -inches wide and 15 %-inches deep. Its foot-
print — the area it occupies on a desk — is about the
same as the A1000. Unlike the A1000, however, the
A2000 keyboard can't be stored beneath the system unit
when not in use.

Like the 1000, the Amiga 2000 has many built-in
ports. On the front are the two mouse/joystick ports.
On the back are a Centronics- and IBM-compatible par-
allel port, an IBM-compatible serial port, an RGB video
port, stereo sound output and a connector for an exter-
nal disk drive. Missing are the composite and RF con-
nectors found on the AI000. Composite and RF output
are optional on the A2000. The keyboard on the A2000
connects to the front of the machine; the power cord to
the back.

Conspicuous by its absence on the Amiga 2000 is the
86-pin edge connector that gave Amiga 1000 owners
direct access to the AlOOO's address and data busses.
The A2000 has internal expansion slots, so no external
bus is provided. Devices that connect to the expansion
bus on the A1000 can't connect to the Amiga 2000. The
Amiga 2000, therefore, is not hardware compatible with
the A1000. According to Commodore, however, third-
party hardware developers will provide expansion
boxes for the A1000 that will give A 1000 owners access
to all peripherals developed for the A2000.

Photo 4. Numeric Keypad. Inscribed on the front of some keys Is the function they
assume In IBM mode.

You can use standard interface cables with the Amiga
2000 serial and parallel ports; Commodore has changed
the pin-outs of these ports to comform to industry stan-
dards (See Figure 1 for the pin-outs of the parallel and
serial ports).

Drive Configuration

In addition to the one standard disk drive, the Amiga
2000 can mount two more disk drives in the front of
the machine. You can put another half-height 3 %-inch
floppy, or a half-height 3 ^-inch hard drive next to the
standard drive. Below these two, you can mount one 5
ii-inch half-height drive — either hard or floppy — or,
with a 3 ({,-inch mounting bracket, mount another 3 %-
inch half-height hard or floppy drive. The A2000 has
controllers to support two internal 3 %-inch floppies.
The A2088 Board— the board that provides IBM com-
patibility — has a controller for four 5 J^-inch floppies.
You will have to supply a controller for any hard-disk
drive mounted in the front of the machine.

In addition to the front-mounted drives and any
drives connected to the disk drive port on the back,
you can attach other disk drives to the Amiga or IBM
side of the system by supplying the appropriate control-
ler board.

The Keyboard

The Amiga 2000 keyboard (Photo 1) has 94 keys (96 on
the international version), five more than the AlOOO's
keyboard. The five new keys are on the numeric key-
pad. In Amiga mode, these keys are left and right
parenthesis, slash, asterisk and plus. When working
with the A2088 Board, these keys take on the IBM-spe-
cific functions inscribed on the front of the keys (Photo
4). These include Nuin Lock, Prt Sc, Scroll Lock and
other IBM keys. The numeric keypad emulates the
functions found on the IBM numeric keypad.

The keyboard is larger than the A1000 keyboard and
the keys themselves are shallower. The keys feel spring-
ier than on the AI000 — they "come back at you" faster
than they do with the A 1000 keyboard.

Inside the Case

Considering the number of boards and drives you can
stick inside the Amiga 2000, you'd expect the machine
to have a large power supply: It does. The biggest thing
on the motherboard, the power supply (see Photo 2)
supplies 200 watts to whatever you load into your
machine. It could take a while before you overload this
power supply.

Unlike the Amiga 1000, the Amiga 2000 has Kickstart
in ROM, specifically Kickstart 1.2. This will save you
time when you boot the system. Because the ROM chips
are socketed, and because Kickstart 1.2 contains hooks
to RAM-resident software patches, Amiga 2000 owners
will be able to take advantage of operating system
upgrades.

The Amiga 2000 comes with 1 megabyte of RAM
standard. Half of that RAM is Amiga chip mem-
ory — memory accessible by both the 68000 and the
Amiga custom chips. Graphics and sound data must be I

20 March/April I9S7

A
7,

::
o

serial port audio out

Amiga custom chips

RGB port

PC/AT slots

Amiga expansion slots

power
supply
connector

MC68000

CPU slot

serial
chips

keyboard

connector

mouse chip RAM

connectors

ROM (on daughterboard)

Photo S. Amiga 2000 motherboard. The mount for the power supply and Internal drives normally covers the right half ot the board.

AmigaWorld 21

in chip memory before it can be used by the system.
The other 512K. is fast memory; so called because the
custom chips can't access this memory. The 68000 can
access fast memory at full speed. AmigaDOS automati-
cally loads programs directly into fast RAM (if there is
any available) and reserves chip memory for graphics
and sound. This increases the efficiency of the system.

The :"il2K of chip memory is built into the Amiga
2000 motherboard. The fast memory is contained on an
autoconfig memory board that plugs into a 100-pin
expansion slot.

The A.2000 system has a built-in clock/calendar.
Unlike the clock in the A1000, however, ibis clock has a
batterv backup. You will no longer have to set the time
and dale on powerup. One thing missing on the A2000
that is standard on the A 1000 is composite video-out.
Commodore has removed composite video-out from the
motherboard entirely. Instead, Commodore provides a
video slot that you can fill with either an XTSC coder
for North America or a PAL coder for Europe. Both
coder boards will be available from Commodore and
will include RF signals for use with TVs and VCRs.
Hopefully, the composite signal from these boards (or
from ihirdpartv hardware boards) will be superior to
that supplied by the A1000, which hasn't won the
hearts of video professionals.

Expansion Architecture

The biggest difference between the A1000 and the
A2000, and the raison d'etre of the A2000, is the pres-
ence of slots on the A2000 motherboard (Photo 5).
Commodore has made the Amiga system expandable
internally, and provided as well a unique and ingenious
method for running MS-DOS software on the Amiga.

Perhaps the most interesting slot on the motherboard
is the CPU slot. This 86-pin slot has the same unbuff-
ered access to the Amiga data and address busses as the
MC 68000. You could use this slot to let another pro-
cessor take over the Amiga or work in parallel with the
68000. This is the natural place lo put a 68020/68881
board to upgrade the Amiga lo a 32-bit processor.

The inclusion of the CPU slot reflects Commodore's
intention to make the A2000 a multitasking, multipro-
cessor, multi-DOS machine. In addition to the CPU and
the video slots mentioned earlier, the A2000 has five
Zorro-like expansion slots on the Amiga motherboard.
These slots are 100-pin, they support autoconfig, and
they do have buffered access to the 68000 data and
address busses; but, they are not totally compatible with
the Zorro 100-pin autoconfig standard published earlier
by Commodore. They conform to (he revised Zorro
specifications announced at the Monterey developers
conference last fall. There are two differences; First, the
form factor — the physical size and shape of the
boards — is different; Zorro boards are square, A2000
boards rectangular. More importantly, some of the lines
have been relocated in the slots (Figure 2). In addition
to resizing, this means that some Zorro boards will have
to be rewired to work in the A2000.

PC slots

The A2000 also has a four-slot IBM PC/AT bus system
on the motherboard. . .sort of. Two of the slots are 16-
bit AT slots; the other two are eight-bit XT slots. If you
look closely at these XT slots, however, you'll see that
all the lines are in place to convert these slots into AT
slots (see Photo 5). All you (or your dealer or Commo-
dore) have to do is solder the AT-specific part of the

PARALLEL PORT
D-25 Fetiale

mmmt

Function

Pin function

STROBE*

14 *5v pull up

Data!

15 NC

total

16 RESET*

Data 2

17 GND

Data 3

18 GND

6 Data 4

19 GND

Data 5

28 GND

Data 6

21 GfiD

Data?

22 GND

ACK*

23 GND

BUSV

24 GND

POUT

25 GND

SEL

SERIAL FORI
D-25 Male

Pin Function

Function

1 GND

—

2 TxD

...

3 RxD

...

4 RTS

...

5 CIS

AUDI

6 HSR

...

7 GND

DTK

DCD

—

fit?

-12?

...

AODO

...

—

...

—

PC Bus

■WAT Slots

ra-
il

Iwo-Hay
' Buffer

Ore-May

Buffer

Amja Slots-

Expansion Bus

HC68669

CPU

Coprocessors

Chip Henory

Figure 1.

Plnouts of the Amiga 2000 parallel and serial ports.

Simplified block diagram of the Amiga 2000 system.

22 March/April 1987

connector in place to convert the XT slots into lull-
Hedged AT slots.

As mentioned earlier, the A2088 Board available for
the Amiga 2000 provides IBM PCfXT compatibility on
a board. Why, then, did Commodore provide a PC/AT
bus system, two PC/AT slots, and the ability to expand
the other slots to AT slots? Commodore has indicated
that they plan to provide an AT-compaiible board at
some future date.

If this is so. then why didn't Commodore make all
four slots AT compatible at once, and save themselves
and users the trouble of upgrading to AT slots in the
future? The problem is that, although XT cards work
in AT slots, they don't always Jit into AT slots. Many XT
cards overhang so much that they don't clear the AT
slot extension. To make certain that all current XT
cards work in the A2000, Commodore left the
extension off two of the AT slots. It's a neat solution
to the problem of fitting enough Amiga, XT and
AT slots into a machine that can fit easily on a
desktop.

Bridging the Gap

Surprisingly, the five Amiga slots and four IBM slots
don't add up to nine usable slots; they add up to seven.
This is due to the way the slots are laid out on the
motherboard (Figure 3). Looking from the front, the
four IBM slots are in the back-left of the machine. The
Amiga slots are towards the front and the right. Note
well, however, that the two rightmost IBM slots are
aligned with the two leftmost Amiga slots. This align-
ment lets specially-constructed cards sit in an Amiga
slot and a PC slot at the same time, providing a bridge
between the two svstems. The A2088 Board is an exam-

ple of such a bridge card. It plugs into both an Amiga
and a PC slot, thus providing a connection between the
Amiga bus system and the PC/AT bus system. The con-
nection is not achieved through physical juncture of
the two busses, but rather through the sharing of mem-
ory accessible to both bus systems.

The fact that two slots of each type are aligned
means increased flexibility in how you configure your
Amiga 2000 system. With the A2088 Board in the left-
most Amiga slot (and the aligned IBM slot), you still
have four unused Amiga slots and two unused IBM
slots. If you put the A2088 Board into the next Amiga
slot to the right, with the board's IBM connector in the
rightmost IBM slot, you will have three unused Amiga
slots and three unused IBM slots. Overlapping two slots
allowed Commodore to give you great flexibility in con-
figuring your system. Of course, if you don't install an
A2088 Board, you have five unused Amiga slots at your
disposal.

Amiga 2000 Peripheral Boards

The A2088 Board (covered in detail in the next story)
and the composite video boards mentioned earlier are
not the only significant peripherals available for the
A2000. Commodore has two memory-expansion boards
for the A2000 and a DMA hard-disk controller that sup-
ports both ST506 and SCSI (Small Computer System
Interface) devices. Commodore is also offering a new
high-persistence monitor for both the A1000 and the
A2000. This monitor is designed to eliminate the
flicker associated with using the Amiga in inter-
laced mode.

The two memory boards available for the Amiga
2000 use tivo different kinds of chips: the A2050 Two- *

288888-

DFFB8B—

ITFFFF-

512K Chi; Neiwry
Reserve d

8 Hesabyte

Kenory Space For
Auto-Configuration
Expansion Devices

Reserved

I/O For 8528' s

CPU RAH

Custo.'i Chip Addresses
Reserved

Auto-Configuration

Expansion Decoding
Reserved

Pin Function Pin Function Pin Function Pin Function Pin Function

Odd
Vti

pins

Even
It'ed
pins

Pin
^188

GND 21

A14

GND 81

BD3

GKD 22

/EINT6

/EINI5

Mia 82

BD7

GND 23

A15

BD15 83

854

GKD 24

/EINT4

/BGx 84

t5V 25

GND

A16

BS14 35

GND

t5V 26

/EEffl

MACK 86

BD5

* 27

A17

BD13 87

GND

-5V 28

/VPA

GND

/SLAVEx 29

GND

BD12 89

GND

+12V 38

/BLDS 98

GND

** 31

BFC8

/VMA

71 BD11 91

GND

RAM. Ju

A18

/BUDS 92

7KE

GND 33

BFC1

/SIS

GND 93

DOE

/C3B 34

A18

A19

MS 94

/RF.SB

CDACB 35

BFC2

BD8 95

S/BGIN

/C1B 36

All

A28

BD18 96

/EMI

/OVR 37

GND

A22

BD1 97

RESERV8

XRN 38

A12

A21

BD9 98

RESERV9

/EIHI2 39

A13

A23

BD2 99

GND

• -12V 4!

/IIH17

/ERx

BD8 188 GND

* : /LOCAL -

m **

:/(

QNFIG-011

*** : /CONTI

G-INx

t : updated by taiga

PC AI SLOIS

1 I

| I

A2B88 Board

1 lr--

Can Go Here...

l l

/ I

1 !!

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Here =

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Aisiga 181

pin slots

Amiga system memory map.

Figure 2. Plnout of the Amiga 2000 100-pln expansion slots.

Figure 3. Layout of the expansion
slots on the Amiga 2000
motherboard, Indicating where you
would place an A2086 or future
Janus system board.

FIGURES DRAWN BV ROGKR GOODF.

Amiga 2000 Specifications

Price (preliminary)

Under SI, 500

Basic System

A2000 CPU box with 200-watt power supply, keyboard, clock/
calendar with battery backup and an optomechanical, two-but-
ton mouse are standard. AmigaDOS Workbench disk and
Extras disk with Amiga Basic are standard software.

CPU

MC68000 running at 7.1-1 MHz. Three custom chips handle-
video display (graphics and animation), sound and DMA.

Standard Memory

One megabyte RAM divided into 312K chip (graphics and

sound) memory and 51 2K (as! memory. Expandable to 8.5

megabytes.

256K ROM contains operating system kernal Kickstan VI. 2.

wwiMuuiiiit iiiiii m ilium

Amiga 2000 system box (from). Note Hie spaces reserved for the Internal drives. The ports along the
bottom are, from left to right, the keyboard connector, mouse port #1 and mouse port #2.

Amiga 2000 system box (rear). At far left la the cut out for the video slot Across the top, left to right,
are the power switch, power plug and Ian. Across the bottom are the RGB port, parallel port, disk-drive
port, stereo-audio connectors and serial port. On the far right are cut outs for connectors to boards In
the seven expansion slots. Above the serial port are two more cut outs for boards that have multiple
connectors.

Keyboard

Detached, 94 keys (96 on international versions). Includes 10
function keys, full cursor control and IBM-type numeric key-
pad. Operating system vl.2 supports different language key
maps.

Disk Drives

One $•%" half-height floppy, built-in; 880K formatted capacity.
One additional Amiga floppy drive can be controlled inter-
nally. Mounting for a third internal drive. Additional internal
drives or hard disks require additional controllers.

Ports

Centronics/IBM parallel, RS-232 serial, RGB port (analog and
digital), external disk drive port for two additional Amiga flop-
pies, two audio pons and two mouse/controller ports.

Slots

86-pin CPU slot, video slot, five Amiga 100-pin expansion slots
and four IBM PC/AT (16-bit) slots.

Video Display-
Text:

60 or 80 columns x 25 lines; text is graphics-generated.

Graphics:

320 x 200 pixels: up to 32 out of 4,096 colors
640 x 200: up to 16 out of 4,096 colors
320 x 400: interlaced, up to 32 out of 4,096 colors
640 x 400: interlaced, up to 16 out of 4.096 colors

In each mode, the palette can be switched on the scanline
(hold and modify) so all 4,096 colors can appear on screen at
once.

Sound

Four independent sound channels output as two stereo chan-
nels. Each sound channel consists of an eight-bit digital/analog
converter and a low-pass filter.

Optional from Commodore:

• A2002 Color Monitor. RGB analog, RGB digital, composite.
Price not available.

• A2080 Color Monitor (under $500). High-persistance version
of A2002.

*A10W External Floppy Drive. H-% inch. Price not available.

*A1Q2Q External Floppy Drive. 5-^ inch. Price not available.

+ AI680 Amiga Modem. 1200 baud, Hayes compatible. Price not
available.

•A2083 Board (under $500). IBM PC/XT compatibility on a
board, with 512K RAM,

• A2094 Hard Disk/SCSI Controller. Controls two ST506 drives
and seven SCSI devices. Price not available.

*A2050 Two-Megabyte HAM expansion. Also available; 512K. ver-
sion. Price not available.

6A2Q58 Fight-Megabyte RAM expansion. Also available; 4M ver-
sion. Price not available.

• A2060 Video/RF Modulator Board (under SI 00). Provides NTSC
composite and RF out.

•A2061 Video/RF Modulator Board (under SI 00) Provides PAL
composite and RF out. □

■

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Megabyte Board uses 256Kbit RAM chips; the A2058
Eight-Megabyte Board uses the newer (and more expen-
sive) 1 Megabit RAM chips. Both boards are autocon-
fig, both have zero-wait state memory, and both are
available in smaller memory sizes. If you buy a board
that isn't filled to capacity, you can buy chips and pop-
ulate the board yourself when you need the extra
memory.

Hard Disk and Scuzzy

The A2094 Hard Disk/SCSI Controller Board (Photo 3)
is designed to give the Amiga high-speed access to
external hard disks and SCSI (commonly called
"Scuzzy") devices. The board uses a custom VLSI DMA
(Direct Memory Access) controller — the 8727 — to move
information quickly between the board and the Amiga's
memory. The board uses a Z-80 microprocessor to con-
trol a pair of ST506 hard disks. The SCSI interface is
provided by the Western Digital WD33C93. This chip
can be controlled by either the Z-80 or the Amiga
68000, with the default being the 68000.

The 8727 DMA controller is a Commodore custom
chip that features a 64-byte FIFO (First In, First Out)
real-time buffer. This buffer allows real-time data trans-
fer between the controllers on the board and the Ami-
ga's memory without having the DMA chip hold the
system bus for an entire sector (512 bytes) transfer. Wait
states caused by DMA transfer are therefore kept to a
minimum.

The DMA controller uses 3 address counters accessi-
ble by the Amiga CPU to determine where to initiate
data transfer (either to or from memory)- Once DMA
begins, these counters are incremented automatically.
DMA is initiated with a 12-byte command block sent to
the DMA controller bv the Amiga system.

Using the DMA controller, the ST506 hard-disk inter-
face can transfer data to the Amiga at 1.6 microsec-
onds/byte (687K-byles/second). Data transfer from the
SCSI controller is even faster — 800 nanoseconds/byte
(l.25Mbytes/second). Translating these values into
Mbits/second, the most common unit for expressing
data-transfer rates, you find thai transfer from the
ST506 controller can reach 5 Mbits/second; transfer
from the SCSI interface can hit 10 Mbits/second.

The SCSI interface is an ANSI X3T9.2-compatible
interface that can control seven SCSI devices numbered
through 6. Device number 7 is the SCSI interface
itself. The interface supports two connectors; an indus-
try standard 50-pin connector and a Macintosh Plus-
compatible D-25 connector. The Amiga SCSI port is
thus hardware compatible with the Mac Plus SCSI port.

The ST506 controller handles one or two hard drives
with up to eight recording surfaces per drive and up to
2,048 cylinders (tracks) per head. The ST506 controller
doesn't support 16-head drives. The Z-80 chip that is
the brains of the ST506 controller has available 2K
bytes RAM to buffer commands from the Amiga. The
intelligence of the controller is contained in 8K PROM
(Programmable Read-Only Memory) that stores the rou-
tines that drive the Z-80, and IK RAM for the storage
of variables needed by the controlling routines.

In addition to the A2088 Board, memory boards and
Hard Disk/SCSI Controller Board, Commodore and
third parties are developing other peripherals for the
slots in the Amiga 2000, At the nondisclosure preview
provided by Commodore, they showed a Computer Sys-
tem Associates 68020/68881 board running in the
Amiga 2000. CSA has resized their board to match the
A2000 form factor; they are also making the necessary
electronic changes to conform to the alterations in the
Zorro electronics. Since the changes to the board
weren't completed at the time of the press demonstra-
tion (early December 1986), the CSA board needed
three jumpers into the CPU slot to work. With that
slight modification, the board seemed to work perfectly.
It computed and displayed a Mandelbrot image on the
Amiga in a couple of minutes. (Note; The CSA 68020
board demonstrated goes into an expansion slot, not
the CPU slot: The 68020, with a 14-MHz clock, takes
control of the system simply by answering bus requests
faster than the 68000 can.) Other companies are mak-
ing adjustments in their Zorro boards and expansion
boxes to conform to the A2000 revised-Zorro slots.

Conclusion

With the A2000, Commodore has extended the Amiga
architecture to include internal slots and, optionally,
IBM compatiblity, while maintaining software compati-
bility with the Amiga 1000. On the negative side, Com-
modore has failed to address the interlace flicker
problem directly (although the high-persistence moni-
tor is a big help) and has revised the Zorro expansion
specification. This is bound to confuse buyers and to
confound third-parly hardware makers who have
invested lots of time and money in supporting the
Zorro standard. It is too early to tell how many manu-
facturers will support the A2000 expansion standard or
how many may drop out of the Amiga market alto-
gether. The third-party hardware situation will take
time to sort itself out,

On the positive side, the Amiga 2000 is far superior
to the A1000. In many respects, especially concerning
standard memorv and internal expansion, it is the
machine the A1000 should have been. While maintain-
ing software compatibility, Commodore has stretched
the horizons of the Amiga architecture while giving
Amiga 2000 owners a window — literally — to other pro-
cessors and operating systems. With a price for the base
unit of under $1,500, the Amiga 2000 is an excellent
buy. Fully configured, it is perhaps the most powerful
and versatile personal computer you can buy.H

Editor's note: This article and the piece on the Janus system
that follows is based upon a six-hour meeting with Commodore
marketing and engineering personnel, numerous follow-up
phone calls and meetings, and about three days of hands-on,
unsupervised experience with the A2000 awl various peripher-
als. Due to deadline constraints, some of the information sup-
plied by Commodore could not be verified independently. We
will follow this description of the Amiga 2000 and the Janus
hardware and software with further details, clarifications and
corrections as needed.

26 March/April 1987

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Circle 119 on Reader Service card.

Between Two Worlds:
The A2088 Board

Commodore's plug-in bridge
between the world of Amiga and
the world of the IBM PC.

By Bob Ryan

n the Roman pantheon, Janus was a two-faced god who
guarded gates and doorways — his unique anatomical ar-
rangement let him see in two directions at once. The
Janus system incorporated into the A2088 Board (and
the Amiga Sidecar) is also the guardian of a gateway:
The gateway between the Amiga and the IBM PC.

The A2088 Board is a peripheral board that sits in
one of the special "bridge" slots on the Amiga 2000
motherboard. The A2088 Board has two edge connec-
tors — one connects the board to the Amiga bus system
via an Amiga expansion slot: the other connects the
board to the IBM/PC AT slot system. Thus, the A2088
Board contains the physical and logical link between
the Amiga and the IBM world.

A2088 Hardware

More than a simple connector, the A2088 Board is a
full fledged computer system. It is an IBM PC/XT com-
puter on a card. It has an Intel 8088 microprocessor
running at 4.77 MHz, an IBM-compatible ROM BIOS
(Basic Input/Output System), a floppy-disk controller
for four IBM-type 5-// disk drives, up to 512K RAM
(256K standard) for MS-DOS software and a socket for
an optional 8087 math coprocessor. In addition, the
A2088 Board has a custom PC Multifunction chip that
emulates many of the hardware aspects of the IBM PC/
XT. These include interrupt control, DMA and the gen-
eration of PC-specific timing signals. The ROM BIOS is
a product of Phoenix Technologies, the leading maker
of PC-compatible BIOS, and Commodore. Commodore
customized the PC BIOS slightly to incorporate hand-
shaking between the PC and the Amiga.

The A2088 Board also contains an area that is con-
trolled by the Amiga. Two large custom chips on the
board contain the Janus interface and the Amiga con-
troller for the actual physical connections between the
Amiga and the XT-on-a-board. This physical connection
takes place in an area of memory common to both the

PC and the Amiga; an area called the dual-port RAM.

Common Access

The A2088 Board has 128K of dual-port RAM, so called
because its address and data busses are connected lo
both the Amiga side and the IBM side of the board
(with access by one system or the other controlled by
flip-flops). It is through dual-port RAM that informa-
tion passes between the two systems. This is how the
Amiga controls the IBM PC/XT in the A2088 Board: To
the Amiga, the entire IBM PC/XT system is just another
AmigaDOS application running in a window on the
Amiga screen.

The 128K dual-port RAM is divided into three major
sections. The largest is a 64K buffer used by the Amiga
to transfer data between the two systems. Using this
buffer, AmigaDOS can use a hard disk connected to the
IBM bus system. The PC, however, can't use hard disks
on the Amiga side of the system. The PC doesn't have
the built-in intelligence to control the Janus interface.

The second major chunk of the dual-port RAM is
critical to running IBM-PC programs in an Amiga win-
dow. In this area are the I/O registers, the monochrome
video RAM, the color video RAM and the CRT registers
of the PC. Also here is an eight-bit interrupt-type regis-
ter that tells the Amiga what type of interrupt has oc-
curred on the IBM side. To an application running on
the IBM side, everything seems normal: The PC thinks
it is writing to its screen memory and thinks it is read-
ing its keyboard register. In fact, the PC side is writing
to memory in dual-port RAM and reading a pseudo
keyboard register in dual-port RAM. Once the informa-
tion is in dual-port RAM, it can be accessed and
massaged by the Amiga to produce output on the Ami-
ga screen and input from the Amiga keyboard. This
"massaging" function is performed by a library of rou-
tines called the janus.library. The link library for C is
called jlib.lib.

28 March/April 1987

Three copies of the PC reg
isters and display memory
exist in dual-port RAM; the
original, as accessed by the
PC side, and two "shadows"
of the same information that is
automatically created by the Janus
controller located on the A2088 Board.
These areas of shadow RAM exist because the Amiga
accesses information from the IBM system in three dif-
ferent ways, depending upon what the information is.
Sometimes, the Amiga is looking for information in
byte form; sometimes in word form (the 8088 and the
68000 have a different order of bytes in their words);
and sometimes as graphics information. The Janus sys-
tem automatically makes three copies of the informa-
tion from the PC side and then directs access of the
Janus routines to the appropriate shadow RAM. (Tor an
example of how shadowing makes life easier for the
Amiga, see the sidebar entitled "How the Amiga 2000
Creates an IBM Medium-Res Display")

The Amiga addresses the different shadow areas by
applying an offset to a base address. Byte access has an
offset of zero; the Amiga reads byte-sized information
from the same physical locations where the PC writes
it. The address of the word-access memory is offset
$20000 from the byte area; graphics access is $40000
above the byte-access area. The Amiga-accessible I/O
registers are offset $60000 above byte-access memory.
Although very little of the possible memory between
these offsets is actually used, the A2088 Board does
take a big chunk of contiguous memory out of the
Amiga memory map. In fact, the A2088 Board reserves
two megabytes of memory for itself during the autoconfig-
uration process. With an A2088 Board installed, your
Amiga is "limited" to 6.5 megabytes of RAM, of which
only 6 megabytes can be autoconfig expansion RAM.

The third major area of dual-port RAM is called

The A2088 Board Is an IBM

PC/XT- compatible computer on a card.

parameter RAM. This area acts as the software interface
control for the Janus system. It has some special regis-
ters that control runtime handshaking between the two
systems. This handshaking is important both at pow-
erup (see the sidebar "Two-Fisted Powerup") and while
a PC application is running to keep both systems from
accessing the dual-port RAM at the same time. Parame-
ter RAM contains definitions to all the PC software
interrupts that the Janus system recognizes. It also has
pointers to the different data structures in other areas
of the dual-port RAM.

A2088 Software

All the intelligence to control the flow of information
between the PC/XT and the Amiga is on the Amiga side
of the interface, either built into the A2088 Board or in
the Janus library. To run PC software, the Amiga runs a
task called the PCWindow task.

PCWindow is like any other Amiga program. It uses
Intuition to create a resizable screen and pull-down ►

A208H BOARD PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL AVIS

AmigaWorld 29

MODULA-2

the successor to Pascal

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i Sophisticated multi-pass compiler

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I ReallnGut, LonglnOut. InOut.

Strings. Storage. Terminal
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tan. arctan, ex p. In. log. power, sqrt

■ 3d graphics and multi-tasking
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■ CODE statement for assembly code

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Pascal and Modula-2 source code are nearly identical Modula-2 should be thought
of as an enhanced superset ol Pascal Prolessor Niklaus Wirtn (the creator of
Pascal) designed Modula-2 to replace Pascal

Added lealures ol Modula-2 nol found in Pascal

i CASE rias an ELSE and may contain

subranges
i Prograrns may be broken up inlo
Modules lor separate compilation
i Machine level interlace
Btt-wise operators
Direct port and Memory access
Absolute addressing
Interrupt structure

i Dynamic strings that may be any

size
i Multi-tasking is supported
l Procedure variables
l McKJule version control
i Programmer delinable scope ol

objects
i Open array parameters (VAR r

ARRAY OF REALS)
i Elegant type transter functions

Ramdisk
Benchmarks (si

Sieve ol Eratosthenes

Float

Calc

Null program

[Sj Compile

• I
6.7
5.7
48

4.9
7.2

4.8
4.7

B.6

Optimized
Size

1257 bytes
3944 bytes
1 736 bytes
1100 bytes

MODULE Sieve;

CONST Size - B190,

TYPE FlagRangc = [O.Sizel;

FlagSel ■ SET OF FlagRange.
VAR Flags: FlagSet.

i FlagRange,
Prime, k. Count, Iter: CARDINAL;
BEGIN rSS-.SR-.SA- •)
FORIter= 1 TO 10 DO
Count = 0;

Flags :^ FlagSetO; (' empty set 'J
FOR I TO Sire DO
IF [i IN Flags) THEN
Primes li '21 • 3. k I • Prime
WHILE k < Size DO
INCL (Flags, k);
k k - Prime.
END.

Ccunl Count * 1
END
END.
END.
END Sieve

MODULE Float,

FROM MalhLibO IMPORT sin. In, oxp.
sqn. arcian.
VAR x.y. REAL. I CARDINAL,
BEGIN CST-.SA-.SS--I
x= 1.0:

FORi:= 1 TO 1000 DO
y:- sin (x); je= In (x). y- exp (xj,

y:= sqrl (x|, y--
x:^ x * 0.01.
END.
END lloal

arctan (x).

MODULE calc.

VAR a.b.c. REAL, n. I CARDINAL.

BEGIN CST-.SA-.SS--I

n.= 5000.

a - 2 71828: h = 3 14159: c:- l.D;

FORi:= I TO n DO
c- c'a, c:- c'b, c - c/a. c:- c/b.

END,
END calc

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menus, and it only goes into action when its polling
procedure detects an action that requires its attention.
Like other Amiga tasks, this action could be the user
clicking the mouse. Unlike common Amiga tasks, how-
ever, PCWindow must also respond to what is happen-
ing on the PC side of the A2088 Board and take action
when needed (specifically, when the PC changes its dis-
play screen or reads its keyboard). Optionally, you can
have the PC control the Amiga parallel port.

When an IBM-PC program changes the information
it is displaying on the screen, it writes the new informa-
tion to a specific area of memory. In a PC, a video pro-
cessor scans this memory and uses the data there to
update the screen. When a PC program running on the
A2088 Board writes to screen memory (located in dual-
port RAM), it triggers a level 2 interrupt on the Amiga
side. The PCWindow task then checks the interrupt-
type register in dual-port RAM to see what caused the
interrupt. (The PC will interrupt the Amiga when one
of eight conditions occurs: The PC reads the keyboard,
writes to monochrome video RAM, writes to color
video RAM, accesses the monochrome CRT registers,
accesses the color CRT registers, accesses LPT1,
accesses COM1, or experiences a software interrupt.)
If the interrupt is something the Amiga must handle, it
does; otherwise, it ignores the interrupt.

In the above example, where the interrupt is trig-
gered by the PC writing to its screen memory, the
PCWindow task can't ignore the interrupt since it
needs to keep its window current with what's happen-
ing inside the PC The PCWindow task checks the PC
display memory in dual-port RAM against a copy of
this memory that it keeps in Amiga memory. If a
change has occurred, PCwindow updates its output win-
dow to reflect the change on the IBM side. It also
updates its copy of the IBM screen memory. Going the
other way, when the PC is looking for keyboard input,
it sends an interrupt to the Amiga, PCWindow handles
the interrupt and passes a character along to the PC
side (in PC-keyboard-specific serial form) after reading
the Amiga keyboard. Then, via an interrupt to the PC
side, PCWindows tells the PC that it has completed
transferring the character. Then, both computers go on
their merry ways until the PC application again
changes its screen memory or asks for keyboard entry.

PC Operations

The Amiga software that comes with the A2088 Board
contains the Janus library and allows you to run MS-
DOS programs in either monochrome or color-graphics
mode. MS-DOS programs come up in an Amiga win-
dow that you can resize like any window. You can also
eliminate the border around the window and change
the default colors.

PC; programs in text mode update the Amiga window
a little slower than they would a PC screen. Many times,
the Amiga will scroll two or three lines at a time to
keep up with the PC program. Graphics applications
on the A2088 Board are not appreciably slowed by hav-
ing the display routed through an Amiga window.

The A2088 Board comes with both Amiga and PC

30 March/April 1987

Circle 120 on Reader Service card.

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utilities. On the Amiga side, it comes with software that
allows you to let the A2088 Board take exclusive con-
trol of the Amiga parallel port. In addition, you get a
Preferences program that lets you determine which
areas of the PC ROM space you want to include in
dual-port RAM. Some PC graphics boards, such as the
Hercules color board, use the same ROM space as the
IBM CGA that is emulated by the Janus system. The
Hercules board, however, supports a horizontal resolu-
tion (720 pixels) that can't be duplicated by the Amiga,
which is limited to 640 pixels. If you plug a Hercules
card into the AT bus system on the Amiga, you'll have
to use the PC Preferences program to turn off the emu-
lation of PC ROM area $B8000 in the dual-port RAM.
This area is the one used by both the IBM CGA and
the Hercules board. You will then have to hook up a
separate monitor to the Hercules board to see the Her-
cules display.

The A2088 Board comes with MS DOS 3.2. On the
disk, you get a utility called Adisk that lets you format a
partition on an MS-DOS disk under AmigaDOS. Then,
using the Djmount command from AmigaDOS, you can
gel AmigaDOS to recognize and use the partition on
the MS-DOS disk, even when MS DOS isn't booted. In

effect, if you have a hard disk on the IBM side of the
Janus interface, you can use part of it under
AmigaDOS.

At the time I saw the A2088 Board, Commodore
hadn't finalized a file-transfer technique for moving
information between MS DOS and AmigaDOS. Two
techniques arc under consideration. One is to pass an
MS-DOS pathname to the A2088 Board under
AmigaDOS and to then intercept the result of the
action that MS-DOS takes. This will only work if there
are no concurrent requests for MS DOS by the PC sys-
tem. The second technique under consideration is to
emulate the MS-DOS filing system in an AmigaDOS
task. This would make the file-transfer program rather
large, but it could let you transfer data without having
MS DOS active. Commodore promises some type of
file-transfer system with the release of the A2088 Board,
in addition to a cut-andpaste function between Amiga
and PC windows.

Beyond MS DOS

The important thing to remember about the A2088
Board is that it isn't necessary to run MS DOS on the
board to make use of the 8088 processor. At the pre-

Two-Fisted Powerup

When power is supplied to an Amiga 2000 system
that contains an A2088 Board, the sequence of events is
carefully choreographed by the Amiga to ensure that
the PC is brought under the Amiga's control. Under-
standing the powerup procedure is important in under-
standing how the Amiga interacts with the PC and how
AmigaDOS can access a partition on the IBM side of
the system.

At powerup, the A2088 Board is reset by the Amiga
and it stays that way until the Amiga has executed
Binddrivers, loaded janus.library, and loaded Work-
bench. The Amiga then releases the PC from reset and
waits. When reset is released, the PC starts its powerup
procedure. The Amiga knows that PC powerup is com-
plete when it detects memory refresh on the PC side.
At this point, the PC BIOS begins to poll a special loca-
tion in dual-port RAM for permission to procedc. This
polling procedure is one of the modifications that
Commodore made to the Phoenix PC BIOS ROM.

Having detected memory refresh on the PC side, and
knowing that the PC is in a wait state, the Amiga then
downloads the file PC.Boot into the $E0000 page of PC
memory in dual-port RAM. The PC.Boot file contains
the PC side of an AmigaDOS hard-disk driver. Once
the Amiga has installed its driver in die PC ROM, it
sends a signal to the PC to procede with its boot pro-
cess. The Amiga then wails for confirmation that boot-
ing is complete.

When the PC receives the signal from the Amiga, it
continues with its boot procedure by initiating its ROM
search. In a PC, the programs that drive peripheral

boards are contained in ROM on the board. During
ROM search, the PC incorporates these ROM routines
into its memory map, starling with ihe lowest ROM ad-
dress and proceeding to the highest. In an IBM system,
hard-disk controllers normally reside at location
SC8000 in memory. When the PC ROM search reaches
this location, it triggers the execution of an initializa-
tion routine. This routine modifies the vector for inter-
rupt SI S, which is triggered by a disk access. Normally,
this vector points to the BIOS services for floppy-disk
drives. The hard-disk initialization routine at $C8000
modifies the vector so that it points to the hard-disk
controller located just above the initialization routine.

As the PC ROM search continues, it encounters the
code at SE000Q that was placed there by the Amiga
while the PC was in a wait state. This code modifies the
vector for interrupt $13 once again, so that it points to
a place above SE0000. Thus, since the Amiga code
above SEQ0OO is the first invoked by a request for disk
services on the PC side, the Amiga can redirect the re-
sults of disk access from the PC to the 64K buffer in
dual-port RAM. The Amiga can even initiate disk ser-
vices by sending an interrupt S 1 3 to the PC side. This
is how AmigaDOS controls disk hardware on the PC
side of the A2088 Board.

Once the initialization routine at SE0000 is finished,
it sends a signal to the Amiga confirming that the
PC ROM search is done. The PC is now ready to run
MS DOS, and the Amiga is ready to access the PC
through an Amiga window. The two systems are ready
to get to work.D

32 MarchJApril 1987

LOGiSTiX

Spreadsheet* Time Management+Database*

LOGiSTiX is a powerful spreadsheet. Its 2048 row by 1024 column worksheet is large enough to handle serious
business applications. LOGiSTiX takes advantage of the Amiga's unique multi-tasking ability and can even use the
Amiga's interlace mode to display 44 rows of your worksheet in 640 « 400 resolution mode. That's powerful!

'LO&iSTiX li,- f.ir;!

j Dimension

Jf < Spreadsheet
= * Grjphir

I I

JIMt.'il-'iMJ -In ■",■«•■

?r jbb cofunam nsmff no

LOGiSTiX is a powerful database that lets you store, sort, find and edit data like a stand-alone database does. The
true power of the LOGiSTiX database is its ability to integrate with the spreadsheet, graphics, and time and project
management functions. LOGiSTiX can also read dBase, ASCII, CSV and many other file formats (such as Lotus and
Supercafc), so data compatibility won't be a problem. LOGiSTiX is fully integrated software!

LOGiSTiX is a powerful time and project manager. You don't have to be a "PERT master" to learn LOGiSTiX. Simply
decide on your time frame, break down your job into tasks, decide which ones need to be completed first and which
tasks get done next. Then LOGiSTiX can take into account job dependencies, calculate Critical Path, and display
float. You have complete control over your planning. You can plan your schedule in time units from half hours to
years, while completely tied into your worksheet.

It's easy to construct Gantt charts and print them out to most popular printers and plotters (with sideways print
abilities). The LOGiSTiX timesheet can be fully integrated with cash flow projections, income statements, etc., all in
the same worksheet area so you can see the effect of time and schedule changes on your bottom I ine. No other project
planning program offers you so much flexibility, letting you plan your time, resources and money so easily.

LOGiSTiX is powerful color graphics. It's easy to translate complex facts and figures into understandable
presentation quality graphs. Youron-screen graphs take full advantageoftheAmiga'samazing graphics capabilities,
and can also be output to the Polaroid Palette system for super high-res text and/or graph slides and transparencies.

L0G1STK

i The fourth Dimflngion of TIME

EST IBEA IN BUSINESS SOFTWARE

'HE E^REACSt
A Program by GiUFOX

WHEN
QUALITY COUNTS!

LOGiSTiX and many other innovative products are now available at your favorite dealer, or directly from
Progressive Peripherals and Software, Inc. LOGISTIX is also available for IBM PC and compatibles, Atari
1040 ST and the HP-150.

LOGiSTiX, Amiga, Atari 1040 ST, dBase, Lotus, IBM, HP-150, and SuparCalc are registered trademarks of Grafox of England, Commodore/Amiga Ino Atari
Inc., Ashton-Tate Corp.. Lotus Development Corp.. International Business Machines. Hewlett Packard Corp., and Sorcim/IUS Inc., respectively.

Circle 160 on Reader Service card.

PRO0R€/TIV€
P€RIPH€RPIL/
&/OFTWARC

464 KALAMATH STREET

DENVER. COLORADO 80204

303-825-4144

TELEX: 880837

How the Amiga Creates
An IBM Medium-Res Display

The screen memory of an IBM medium-res display
stores four pixels per byte. Each pixel is defined by two
bits and can therefore have one of four different val-
ues. These four values correspond to the four colors a
pixel can have in an IBM medium-res color displav.

When an IBM program running on the A2088 Board
writes to screen memory in dual-port RAM, the infor-
mation is immediately shadowed to the graphics-access
area in dual-port RAM. The shadowing procedure is
not a straight copy, however: There's some hard-wired
processing going on that makes it easy for the Amiga to
transform PC pixel-packed graphics information into
Amiga bit planes.

The shadowing process takes information from two
bytes of PC screen memory and sends alternate bits to
two different Amiga bytes. The odd-numbered bits
from the PC bytes go to one Amiga byte and the even-
numbered bits go to the other. This automatic process
doesn't require the 68000 or the 8088. When the Amiga
creates an IBM graphics display, it shifts the odd-num-
bered byte (containing the odd-numbered bits) into one
bit plane and the even-numbered byte (with the even-
numbered bits) into the second bit plane. The shadow-
ing process unpacks the IBM graphics information; the
only work the 68000 has to do is shift the unpacked
information into the bit planes. D

2 bytes IBM

graphics
memory In
dual-port RAM

1 8

0000 mwm

^[Hiliin^Hi] E

corresponding

bytes as
shadowed in
dual-port
RAM

.■ j .■ j . .■

The "shadowed" byles
are then shitted into
Amiga bit planes for
display.

view, a Commodore engineer described a system
whereby the PC system is used as a real-time data aquis-
ition system and preprocessor for the Amiga. Using the
public routines of the Janus library, it won't be too dif-
ficult to develop custom applications that use the com-

bined power of the 8088 and the 68000. The A2088
Board is not merely "MS DOS in a window." The
Amiga 2000 with the A2088 Board gives you flexibility
not seen before in a microcomputer coprocessor
system. ■

34 MarclMpril 19S7

FIGURE ILLUSTRATION BY ROGER GOODE

VIZAWRITE

PERSONAL WORD PROCESSOR

Announcing ttie first desktop publishing word
processor for the exciting Commodore
Amiga. VizaWrite Amiga is a brand new
developement of a product that has been a
best seller for many years. Developed entirely
In machine code. Vizawrite has the speed,
compactness and style that makes the most
of the Amiga.

■ VizaWrite brings desktop publishing to the
AMIGA!! Combine pictures from your
favorite "Paint" program into a document,
reduce or enlarge pictures at any time and
then print it!! For high quality presentation o
both text and graphics.

■ VizaWrite supports all AMIGA proportional
and fixed-width fonts. True proportional
layout gives instant pixel accuracy to
margins, tabulations and justification. Switch
fonts at any time - underline, italic, bold, and
superscript/subscript all show on-screen as
ihey wil print.

■ VizaWrite is extremely easy to use. We've
made sure that our software is presented in a
logical and natural way. Using pull-down
menus, requester boxes, and mouse
selection of activities combine to make
document preparation more effective and
enjoyable.

■ VizaWrite is well behaved, allowing you to
use the murti-tasking capabilities and run
sweral programs simultaneously.

■ VizaWrite is broad minded, allowing you to
include text from Textcrafr, pictures from
Graphicraft, Deluxe Paint '•■ and most other
products.

■ VizaWrile comes ready to run, no
installation of the software is required and
will run in 256K of RAM on one or more drives.
Comes supplied with Workbench 1 .2 and
reauires Kickstarl 1 .2 or greater.

■ Because VizaWrite is well behaved, it
supports all peripherals, such as hard disk
subsystems, as long as they are similarly
well-behaved.

■ Automatically sets text into pages while
editing. Text is always shown as "What you
see is what you get."

■ Headers and footers show at the top and
bottom of each page, they can beoneormore
lines and have their own font style and
margins.

■ Ruler lines control page layout. Margins,
tabulations, justification and line spacing are
all adjustable using the icons on the ruler line.
Rulers can be introduced anywhere in the
document. Rulers can be hidden from view, if
required.

■ Move between pages instantly, no waiting
for disk accessing - select any page to work
on.

■ Copy, cut and paste by highlighting text
with the mouse.

■ Move around the text by pointing with the
mouse or by using the cursor keys. Scroll
through Ihe document - forwards or
backwards.

■ Edit and save any standard ASCII file. All
character codes above the space character
can be used in a document. Supports all
international characters.

■ VizaWrite documents retain pertinent
information when saved - such as author,
creation date, notes, alteration count etc.

■ Open as many documents onto the screen
as will fit into memory. VizaWrite uses
memory extremely efficiently, and works with
the AMIGA operatiny system in the standard
way.

■ Mail merge from a standard ASCII file with
configurable item delimiters. Alternatively,
mail merge from a VizaWrite document,
where each name and address is held in its
own page.

■ Optional configuration file permits the
varying of many operation defaults, such as
standard document size, screen colors,
margins, tab stops, etc.

■ Document history window, used to log
author's name, creation date, amended date
etc. Shows document statistics, such as word
and sentence counts.

■ Glossary system permits single keystrokes
recall of frequently used phrases. This is
inserted directly into the document at the
current typing position, instantly.

■ Supports fixed width font printing on any
preferences selected printer. Supports
proportional printing on certain printer types
only (this is a limitation of the printers).
Recommended dot-matrix printer is NEC
RNWRfTER P6/P7, recommended
daisywheel is JUKI 6-100 or any DIABLO
compatible. HP LaserJet is the recommended
laser printer using the "F" font cartridge. The
AMIGA proportional screen fonts are printed
in high quality on supported dot-matrix
printers. Daisywheel users can use
proportional print-wheels to print out
documents laid out using the proportional
screen fonts.

VizaWrite AMIGA now forms the nucleus of a
complete desktop publishing system that
Viza is developing for the Commodore
AMIGA. Intuitive, simple.m fast and powerful
software - just what your AMIGA deserves.

Distributed by
Progressive Peripherals & Software, Inc.

ONLY!

$14Q95

Km ne wn-nwnt

sir

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dwuTifft. ftiirji be p-mltd

A , i R

Thu n a mcmd docmenl, « «
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SOFTWARE

CALL
TODAY

Progressive Peripherals & Software, lr»c,

464 Kalamath Street Denver, Colorado 80204

Telephone: (303) 825-4144

Circle 1 37 on Reader Service card.

36 March/April 1987

ILLUSTRATED BV VINOY LAUGHNER

Graphic Hardcopy
And the Amiga

INSET:

A screen dump made
using Grahbit and a
Canon PJW80A.

LEFT:

Tlie same image
printed from Aegis
Images at 640 wide
x 800 high on the
Canon PJ1080A.

By Morton A. Kevehon

O matter how impressive an original Amiga screen dis-
play is, I have yet to see one that can be slipped into
my portfolio or folded into a letter-size envelope. For
these applications, and many others, a quality graphic
printout is indispensable. The developers of the Ami-
ga's operating system anticipated this tn:a\ by including
a generic printer device (l'RT:). On most computers, it
is up to the applications programmer to create printer
drivers for each package; the Amiga includes these driv-
ers as part of its operating system. The applications
programmer need only follow the Amiga's rules on
printer control while the end user simply selects the
appropriate printer driver with Preferences.

The Amiga's printer drivers are not just simple text
routines, full graphics capabilities have been included
for the dot-matrix printers, which have the ability to
print bit-map graphics. Even color graphic printers are
supported. As a result, an Amiga fresh out of the box
has so much graphic printing potential that it takes
many hours to discover just what is available. Version
1.2 of the operating system (which is starting to ship as
of this writing) even includes a graphic screen-dump
utility right on the distribution disk.

This article is intended to shorten the process of dis-
covering the Amiga's graphic printing capabilities. It
presents the results of manv hours of experimentation
with several printers, some popular graphics packages
and some stand-alone screen-dump programs.

Preferences

With very few exceptions, the graphic screen printer-
dump parameters will be controlled entirely with the
Amiga's Preferences tool. Two of the three Preferences
screens are devoted entirely to primer settings. The sec-
ond screen, accessed by clicking on the Change Printer
box, deals primarily with the hardware aspects of the
printer. However, the margin and page-length settings
on this screen may be used to to control the size of the
graphics dump.

The width of the printed image is set by the differ-
ence between the right and left margins. Note that this
is a relative setting, since the graphic dump always
starts at the left edge of the paper. The width of the
dump automatically determines its height. The aspect
ratio (width divided by height) of the graphic printout

is fixed by the characteristics of the printer and its
printer driver. It is also possible to set the dump size by
adjusting the page-length parameter. However, the fixed
aspect ratio will still prevail. Thus, the smaller of the
two settings, and the aspect ratio, wilt determine the
size of the printout.

The real fun to be had with graphic dumps is found
on the third Preferences screen. This may be reached
by clicking on the Graphic Select box in screen two.
On this screen take note of the three types of graphic
dumps that are available under the Shade category. The
Hlack-and-White option generates a high-contrast dump
with screen colors printed as either pure black or pure
white. This mode works in conjunction with the
Threshold scale at the top of this screen. An under-
standing of how the Amiga generates its display colors
will be helpful in applying the Threshold setting.

The Amiga Color Display

Each of the Amiga's 4,096 colors is composed of a mix-
ture of red, blue and green primary colors, which cor-
respond to the color phosphors of the video display.
Each of the primary colors can be set at one of 16
intensity levels (hence the 4,096 possible combinations).
Note that an intensity of zero is equivalent to black, or
turning off that color entirely. Internally, the Amiga
stores a color value in a 12-bit register with four bits
devoted to each primary color. The Amiga's custom
graphics chip has 'A'2 of these registers, which define the
maximum number of different colors on the lo-res
screen under normal circumstances.

The relationship between the color values and the
threshold scale should now be obvious. For a given set-
ling, eight for example, all colors with a combined
intensity that is less than this value print as black. All
lighter shades print as white. This relationship holds
firm for shades of gray where the red, blue and green
are set to the same level. It seems to also hold fairly
well for the average value when the primary-colors set-
tings are not all the same. However, I have noticed
some anomalies: Using a threshold setting of eight, on
a color consisting of 15 red, green and blue prints
as black, while red, 15 green and blue prints as
white. This corresponds to the maximum sensitivity of
the eye to the green portion of the spectrum. ►

AmigaWorld 57

-JL.il

, he tira\ .Stale option is exactly as the name
implies. The display colors are translated into shades of
gray by printing various patterns of black dots. The
total number of possible patterns is of course limited
by the printer's dot size and the number of pixels com-
posing the screen image. For example, a four-by-four
printer patient may be made to correspond to a single
screen pixel. Although this allows for 65,536 possible
dot patterns, on the average only 16 unique shades of
gray are actually possible. Some additional shading may
be obtained by the arrangement of the dots in the
matrix. The remaining patterns are merely different
arrangements of (lots whose differences may be dis-
cerned at the pattern boundaries. For example, color 15
red, 7 green and blue (an intense orange) generates
the same gray pattern as red, 15 green and blue
(pure green) on my Canon PJ1080A and Okidala ML92
printers.

Both the Black-and-White and Gray Scale options
may be used with color as well as black-ribbon printers.
Note that color printers should use only their black rib-
bon or ink pack with these modes. If you have an Oki-
mate 20, you will have to make sure that the black-
ribbon cartridge is in place.

If you have a color primer, the Color setting will let
you produce color-graphic dumps. With z'prv few excep-
tions, do not expect to see the same results on paper as
you see on the screen. Printer technology is just not up
to the wide range of colors available on the video dis-
play tube. Pleasing and useful results are still attainable;
however, "serious" applications will demand some
experimentation oti your part. One approach is to set
up test patterns of calibrated colors. Of course, trying
out all possible 4,096 colors is quite a project. At 32
colors per screen you will need 128 dumps for a com-
plete selection. Nevertheless, useful results can be
obtained from far fewer trials.

Of the remaining settings, one lets you choose
between a horizontal or vertical printout. The latter set-

ting will let you make a larger dump than the former.
Note that the aspect ratio of the horizontal dump may
differ from that of the vertical dump. The last setting
applies only to black-and-white or gray-scale graphics
dumps. This setting lets you invert the printed relation-
ship between light and dark screen colors. Just click on
the Positive box for a dump that corresponds to the
screen display. Clicking on the Negative box will gener-
ate a photographic inverse of the screen on the printer.

Of course, the Preferences settings may be changed
as often as you like. And make sure, when you first
customize Preferences to your most used mode and
printer, vou select the Save option upon exiting if you
want to store the settings on the Workbench disk. Click-
ing on the Use box on the first screen is adequate to
make temporary changes.

Setting the Palette

Every paint program has some means for changing
colors. In the course of preparing this report, I exam-
ined the three most popular Amiga paint programs and
noted some differences in their color-setting
procedures.

Aegis Images has a color-palette control that is well
suited to the type of experimentation described above.
Three sliders with numerical settings from 1-15 are dis-
played, which may be set to control either red, green
and blue or hue, luminance and shade. The red, green
and blue slider combination is preferred for calibrating
the color palette. The numerical settings make it very
easy to set up and repeat calibrated colors for
experimentation.

DeluxePaint's palette control is also easy to work
with. Six sliders for red, green, blue, hue, saturation
and value are simultaneously displayed. The three color
sliders have tick marks for all sixteen color steps with
numerical markings every four steps. Changes in the
red, green or blue sliders arc immediately reflected in
the settings of the hue, saturation and value sliders and

RIGHT:

A Canon PJ1080A
printout from
DeluxePaint at 320
wide x 800 high.

INSET:

The same image
printed on the
Canon PJ1080A
at 1,024 wide
X 200 high using
the Preferences
Vertical setting.

38 March/April 198?

ILLUSTRATED BY ROGER GOODE

;^^ :: ^^N.^^^5*^^i3^H^^miHel^JW

iswrsK:---.:

vice versa. The arrangement is well suited for setting
up calibrated colors.

Commodore's Graphicraft also uses red, green and
blue sliders for setting the colors. However, these con-
trols lack any visible calibration. To make matters
worse, dragging the sliders results in more than 16 pos-
sible positions for each slider. I did find that clicking in
the space next to the slider changed the setting in 15
discrete intervals. To repeat a setting it is necessary to
count the mouse clicks as the slider is stepped along.

Graphic Dumps from Paint Programs

All of the graphic packages mentioned above include
built-in graphic clumps that can be controlled by Prefer-
ences. Aegis Images 1.2 includes a useful refinement to
the margin settings with its graphic screen dump.
Images lets you specify the width and height of the
printed image in pixels, instead of using the margin
settings in Preferences. This feature lets you exercise
precise control of the dimensions and aspect ratio of
the graphic primer dump.

The range of Aegis Images' printer control is 320-
1200 pixels horizontally X 200-800 pixels vertically.
These values apply to the screen orientation of the
image and not the Horizontal or Vertical printout selec-
tion in Preferences. For example, a dump 640 pixels
wide x 20(1 high in Images will print as a horizontal or
vertical strip depending on the setting in Preferences.

The actual usable range of Aegis Images' printer con-
trols will depend on the number of dots per line the
printer can generate. For example, the Okimate 20 will
work with up to 920 pixels across the page while the
Canon PjlOHOA is limited to 640. The length of a verti-
cal printout is essentially unlimited. A vertical aspect in
Preferences will permit the entire 1200-pixel width to
be used with any printer. With Images, if you try a
dump with more than the possible number of pixels,
it simply refuses to print. No indication is given
when this happens; this is a bit frustrating, since it ►

AmigaWorld 39

OPPOSITE PAGE:
.4>i Okimate 20 printout
from DeluxePaini at
640 wide x 602 high.

ABOVE:

The same image printed
in gray scale
on an Okimale 20 at
957 wide X 800 high.

RIGHT:

The .same image printed
in gray scale on an
Okimate ML92 printer
at a threshold of 8.

40 March/April 1981

ILLUSTRATED BY ROGER GOODE

normally takes several seconds for a color dump to gel
started.

Commercial Graphics Utilities

In addition to the screen dumps that are built into the
graphic packages, stand-alone screen-dump utilities are
available both commercially and in the public domain.
One of the most versatile of these programs that I have
come across is Grabbit from Discovery Software. Once
activated, this program slashes itself in some out of the
way place in RAM. lis presence is not fell until invoked
by the proper "HotKey" sequence. Grabbit can be used
to generate a graphic primer dump of any screen
image that is displayed by any program. The only
requirement is that the program whose screen is to be
dumped should follow the protocols that are set forth
in the Amiga's ROM Kernel Reference Manual.
Included on the Grabbit disk is a very useful palette-
adjustment utility called AnyTime. When activated,
AnyTime displays a color palette that is very similar to
the ones generated by the dedicated drawing programs.
This is a very handy way to fiddle with the shading of a
black-and-white or color graphic dump prior to
printing.

From Electronic Arts, the DeluxePaint Art &: Utility
Disk Volume 1 contains a number of useful items.
Among these is the PrintUtility written by Perry Kivo-
lowitz. This program opens its own minimum height
Workbench window to allow for Amiga protocol menus.
When activated, PrintUtility will let you cycle through
the available screens and pick one for printing. All the
Preferences printer controls are available with the
exception of (he vertical aspect option.

When a screen is selected for printing, PrintUtility
looks for enough empty RAM to put it in. If RAM is
available, the screen will be copied to it and printed in
the background. Otherwise, you arc informed of the
lack of space and asked to pick direct printing. Print-
Litility will also let you print images and text files
straight from disk. For images, the barest minimum of
memory is used, since only a single line of graphics is
read in at a time. This is the reason for the restriction
to horizontal aspect dumps. Also on the Utility Disk is
a comprehensive slide-show program and the public
domain SeelLBM utility. The latter lets you conve-
niently view individual IFF images without loading up a
complete graphics package. The SeelLBM program,
used in conjunction with PrintUtility or Grabbit, is a
very convenient way to view and print a series of
graphic images.

Public Domain Graphic Utilities

Commercial software is not the only source of graphic
utilities. Many useful programs may also be found as
shareware or in the public domain. A good source of
public-domain software is Fred Fish (345 Scoltsdale
Road, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523). Mr. Fish has single-
handedly undertaken the task of compiling a massive
public-domain program library for the Amiga. As of
this writing, the count is up to disk 35.

1 have already come across two graphic screen-dump

programs in the non-commercial sector. Scrimper, for
SCReen IMage PrintER, is the predecessor to the Elec-
tronic Arts PrintUtility. Scrimper will not print an
image from disk; nevertheless, it is well worth the price.
Scrimper may be found on Fish disk number 18.

ScreenDump is a shareware offering from Ned Konz
(210 Oleeta Street, Ormand Beach, FL 32074). If you
find that ScreenDump satisfies your needs, then Mr.
Konz requests a minimum donation of $10 to further
his efforts.

Conclusion and Comment

The proliferation of graphic and print utilities, so early
in the Amiga's life-cycle, is a fitting tribute to its capa-
bilities. All indications are that the selection will con-
tinue to grow for the forseeable future.

While I bate to conclude on a sour note, I feel that
this may be an occasion where it may do some good.
Although the Amiga's printer routines produce satisfy-
ing results, their speed leaves something to be desired.
Anyone who has actually done a graphic screen dump
will recall the anxiety associated with their first
attempt. The Amiga seems to go off to some inner
limbo for an extraordinary long delay before printing
starts. Color graphic dumps are always accompanied by
pregnant pauses thai punctuate each pass of the
pi inlhead.

The fault seems to lie entirely in the Amiga's printer
routines and not with the application software. Rumor
has it that Commodore is well aware of the problem,
but has declined to fix it as, to date, no one has com-
plained. Well, for the record, here is my official com-
plaint! Slow printing, on a machine with the Amiga's
capabilities, is a shame and a disgrace. So, go to it
Commodore, fix those printer routines! ■

Address all author correspondence to Morton Kevelson, 2471
Bragg St., Brooklyn, NY 11235.

AmigaWortd 41

Absoft's AC/FORTRAN

A review ofAbsoft Corporation's
FOR TRAN compiler for the Amiga,

By William B. Catchings and Mark L. Van Name

vinff text is:

k> Hark a region

it Cwi

On-screen fornattinff

he combination of FOR IRAN and (lie Amiga, the old
and the new, may seem an unlikely one. But, for many
Amiga users, Absoft's AC/FORTRAN version 2.2 could
become one of their most valued tools.

The Amiga FORTRAN compiler is based on a tore
system that is already available on other microcomput-
ers, including the Macintosh (as Microsoft FORTRAN),
the Atari ST and the Hewlett-Packard Integral PC.
Absoft also offers FORTRAN/020, a version of the com-

piler tailored specifically to lake advantage of the CSA
68020/68881 Turbo Amiga Board.

Many large scientific laboratories do much of their
programming in FORTRAN. They are faced with prob-
lems lhai the Amiga can help to solve, such as graphical

42 March/April 1987

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Circle 163 on Reader Service card-

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Software House, Southern Technologies, Triangle. Amiga Is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.

data presentation. Imagine, for example, a large central
computer doing a great deal oT number processing,
with the results being turned into graphic images and
displayed on Amigas. The powerful computational and
graphics capabilities of the Amiga can remove the
image-generation work from the central machine,
freeing it to concentrate on the computational chores.
To do this, the Amiga needs to process a dialect of
FORTRAN very close to that in use on the larger
machine, while offering reasonable performance. The
Ahsoft compiler, while by no means perfect, Fulfills
both of these needs.

FORTRAN 77

FORTRAN, short for FORmula TRANslation, is a pro-
gramming language thai first appeared in the 1950s. It
was designed to solve highly mathematical problems.
Despite its age, FORTRAN is still extensively used.

In 1966, the ANSI FORTRAN standard was ratified; it
is commonly known as FORTRAN IV or FORTRAN 66.
Because its structure and basic capabilities fell behind
those of newer high-level languages, it was revised
about a decade later as FORTRAN 77.

AC/FORTRAN is an almost complete version of FOR-
TRAN 77. Our testing revealed no areas of incompati-
bility beyond those mentioned in Appendix I of the
manual. Of the six restrictions cited there, vx feel that
only three might interfere with normal work:

1. While you can declare eight- and 16-bit integer
(INTEGER* 1 and INTEGER*2) variables, you cannot
have constants in these sizes. It is not even possible lo
pass a one- or two-byte integer constant to a procedure.

2. The Absoft system restricts the size of records in
direct access, formatted sequential and unformatted
sequential files to a maximum of 1.024 bytes. This can
be a severe limitation, as many files can have consider-
ably larger records.

3. This FORTRAN'S runtime system handles differ-
ently I/O that is to be treated a block at a lime, such as
many data files, and character-by-character I/O, such as
to the screen. It uses a set of internal buffers to manip-
ulate the block files, while it essentially reads and writes
character files one at a lime. If a program terminates
abnormally, the runtime system might not have flushed
its block file buffers, causing data to be lost.

While these resirictions may cause problems, AC/
FORTRAN, overall, offers a useful implementation of
FORTRAN 77.

New Additions

Like FORTRAN 77 compilers for larger machines, AC/
FORTRAN'S design takes into account that the new,
upcoming FORTRAN standard will eventually be
accepted. Its language extensions, along with some simi-
lar to those incorporated by popular laboratory
machines such as the VAX from Digital Equipment and
minicomputers from Hewlett-Packard, help make this
version more useful to programmers. Among the most
useful of these additions are the following:
• Additional looping structures: DO WHILE, WHILE

END DO. REPEAT, CYCLE and EXIT statements.

• A statement (SELECT CASE) that gives structure to
multi-decision blocks of code.

• Names up to 31 characters long.

• Recursion,

• Intrinsic Shift, Date and 'Time functions.

• One and two-byte INTEGER and LOGICAL
variables.

• Three functions, byteQ, word() and longQ, that
allow the direct manipulation of specific bytes of
variables.

• A function, loc(), which can get the address of any
variable.

Working with the Amiga

Other extensions include a means lo communicate with
the Amiga's binaries. To do this, you pass the name of
an Amiga support routine, followed by the arguments
for that routine, to a single routine, amiga.sub, that is
called. You also must include in your programs the
include files for the proper Amiga library. For example,
if you wain lo free some memory that you have previ-
ously allocated, you include in your program the file
"exec.inc" and then have the following statements:

integer*'! size
integer*-! block

call amiga( F'recMem, block, size )

The amiga routine also can lie treated as a function,
for those Amiga support functions that return values.

The system does not include direct support for all of
the Amiga's many operating system and ROM Kernel
functions. However, it does come with the assembler
source for the amiga.sub subroutine, so you can extend
it yourself lo work with additional routines.

In addition, the manual explains how to hook your
FORTRAN programs to those written in C or assem-
bler. The major trick here is using the compiler's
option that causes it to produce assembly code and
then stoj). While the care needed to assure correct
parameter passing will be somewhat daunting to the
beginner, such connections are possible.

A Complete System

AC/FORTRAN is more than just a compiler, ll conies
with a linker, a librarian, a set of runtime libraries and
a debugger. The linker will allow you to hook up sepa-
rately compiled subroutines or access routines in librar-
ies built by the librarian. The debugger provides
source-level capabilities, including single-stepping,
breakpoints and the ability to examine and change the
values of variables.

The svstem is self-contained. 'The linker and compiler
produce executables that are reentrant and position
independent, but they are not in the standard Amiga
form. Further, the linker relies heavily on dynamic link-
ing. All undefined procedure references are treated as t

44 March/April 19S7

le 164 on Reader Service card.

Micro-Systems Software

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externa) ones thai are to be resolved at runtime. Partly
because of this, the object files produced by this com-
piler are incredibly small. However, the runtime system
must be present in order to run a program.

Except for the amiga.sub subroutine, AC/FORTRAN
does not appear to be integrated with the Amiga. You
can access it onlv from the CLI. It has pre-dctcrmined.
and currently unchangeable, search rules. Amiga inte-
gration is one area in which the procluct definitely
could use some work.

Some Bad News

AC/FORTRAN's manual is useful onlv to someone who
already has some knowledge of FORTRAN, linkers,
librarians, debuggers and the Amiga's support routines.
If you are not conversant in any of these areas, this
manual will do little to alleviate your confusion. Also,
while there are code snippets in the manual, it contains
no complete examples. The release diskette contained
several example programs, but all were rather poorly
documented and not for the novice. For the program-
mer experienced with both FORTRAN' and the Amiga.
however, they are useful.

The system claims to work on a 256K Amiga with a
single disk drive. The release diskette is indeed onlv
about half full, so that claim is believable. However,
despite the fact that we conducted our tests on a 512K
Amiga, we received an "Out of Memory" error message
for each of their three sample programs that we tried
to compile.

The manual warns you once to increase your slack
size, but if you forget to do so (as we did), the resulting
guru meditation is both frustrating and of little use. We

Table 1. Benchmark Results.

Execution

File size

Compilation

Program

Time (mitusec)

(bytes)

Time (min:sec)

fibonacci.for